Embedded Files
CLICK HERE FOR CLASS WEBSITE
ABOUT MS. KLINE
ABOUT MS. KLINE
Hi!
Hi!
My name is Karen Kline,
My name is Karen Kline,
and I couldn’t be more excited to be your Social Studies teacher this year. Some of you may know that I was the Cluster 6 Humanities teacher for thirteen years, but when WMS decided to split Humanities into separate ELA and Social Studies classes, and Ms. Morris decided to retire last year, I jumped at the chance to move up to Cluster 5 to become the Social Studies teacher! Social Studies has been my passion ever since I was in high school back in Albany, NY where I grew up. My parents were always into history, and when we were kids, they took me and my brother all over the place to visit historical sites like Washington, D.C., Gettysburg, and the National Parks here in the US, and some places in Europe like Paris and London, too. I always loved those trips (and I still love to travel), but my own passion for history really started when I took AP European History my sophomore year of high school. I had an amazing teacher named Mr. McGurn, who was incredibly enthusiastic about history and (it seemed to me) knew everything there was to know about his subject. He was funny and engaging and interesting, so much so that kids would try to skip their other classes to go to an extra one of his! He inspired me not just to love the subject, but also to eventually become a history and Social Studies teacher, too.
and I couldn’t be more excited to be your Social Studies teacher this year. Some of you may know that I was the Cluster 6 Humanities teacher for thirteen years, but when WMS decided to split Humanities into separate ELA and Social Studies classes, and Ms. Morris decided to retire last year, I jumped at the chance to move up to Cluster 5 to become the Social Studies teacher! Social Studies has been my passion ever since I was in high school back in Albany, NY where I grew up. My parents were always into history, and when we were kids, they took me and my brother all over the place to visit historical sites like Washington, D.C., Gettysburg, and the National Parks here in the US, and some places in Europe like Paris and London, too. I always loved those trips (and I still love to travel), but my own passion for history really started when I took AP European History my sophomore year of high school. I had an amazing teacher named Mr. McGurn, who was incredibly enthusiastic about history and (it seemed to me) knew everything there was to know about his subject. He was funny and engaging and interesting, so much so that kids would try to skip their other classes to go to an extra one of his! He inspired me not just to love the subject, but also to eventually become a history and Social Studies teacher, too.
After high school, I moved to Massachusetts to go to Amherst College, where I double majored in history and Asian Languages and Civilizations, and then came to the Boston area for graduate school at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. I feel like my life has come full circle, because in my very first year of teaching, I taught Civics in Boston Public Schools. Now I get to teach it again over a decade later!
After high school, I moved to Massachusetts to go to Amherst College, where I double majored in history and Asian Languages and Civilizations, and then came to the Boston area for graduate school at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. I feel like my life has come full circle, because in my very first year of teaching, I taught Civics in Boston Public Schools. Now I get to teach it again over a decade later!
As a teacher, you get kind of attached to your curriculum, and I LOVED teaching world history for many years. But I’m actually super excited that Massachusetts decided to change the curriculum to require Civics in 8th grade! Civics is all about learning how the government functions and how to make it work for you (that is its job, after all). It’s also about learning your rights and responsibilities as citizens or residents, and how to use them to make your community a better place. So many of the positive changes we’ve seen in the world in the past decade (and there have been lots of positive changes, even when the world seems pretty grim!) have been spearheaded by young people like you. My job is to give you the knowledge and skills you need to make the change you want to see, and I think that’s some of the most important work in the world.
As a teacher, you get kind of attached to your curriculum, and I LOVED teaching world history for many years. But I’m actually super excited that Massachusetts decided to change the curriculum to require Civics in 8th grade! Civics is all about learning how the government functions and how to make it work for you (that is its job, after all). It’s also about learning your rights and responsibilities as citizens or residents, and how to use them to make your community a better place. So many of the positive changes we’ve seen in the world in the past decade (and there have been lots of positive changes, even when the world seems pretty grim!) have been spearheaded by young people like you. My job is to give you the knowledge and skills you need to make the change you want to see, and I think that’s some of the most important work in the world.
My other most important work, of course, is my family! My husband Seth and I have two beautiful, smart, strong little girls named Liana (5) and Talia (1). We live in Westford with our rescue dog Pippin, and we’ve spent our quarantine so far cultivating a large garden (we harvested over 40 lbs of zucchini! And 60 ears of corn!), watching Disney+, reading lots of books (right now we’re reading the Little House on the Prairie series out loud to Liana), and setting up a pretend water park in our backyard. I also took up running! Even though I’ve done athletic things in my life (fun fact: I’m a second degree black belt in one style of karate, a brown belt in another style, and a brown belt in American Jiu Jitsu, though I’m now basically “retired” and haven’t practiced in years), I’ve never been good at running. I dreaded running the mile in school, and I would always get horrible shin splints and have to walk really early on. I decided that I didn’t want to hate running anymore, and that maybe if I really trained I could get better at it. So I downloaded the “Couch to 10K” app, and am running my first virtual 5k in September and a 10k in November! My motivation is that I love, love, love Disney World, and I want to run in the Disney Princess Half Marathon in the next few years. I’m really proud of the progress I’ve made, and although it might be an exaggeration to say that I like running now, I’m happy to report that I at least tolerate it.
My other most important work, of course, is my family! My husband Seth and I have two beautiful, smart, strong little girls named Liana (5) and Talia (1). We live in Westford with our rescue dog Pippin, and we’ve spent our quarantine so far cultivating a large garden (we harvested over 40 lbs of zucchini! And 60 ears of corn!), watching Disney+, reading lots of books (right now we’re reading the Little House on the Prairie series out loud to Liana), and setting up a pretend water park in our backyard. I also took up running! Even though I’ve done athletic things in my life (fun fact: I’m a second degree black belt in one style of karate, a brown belt in another style, and a brown belt in American Jiu Jitsu, though I’m now basically “retired” and haven’t practiced in years), I’ve never been good at running. I dreaded running the mile in school, and I would always get horrible shin splints and have to walk really early on. I decided that I didn’t want to hate running anymore, and that maybe if I really trained I could get better at it. So I downloaded the “Couch to 10K” app, and am running my first virtual 5k in September and a 10k in November! My motivation is that I love, love, love Disney World, and I want to run in the Disney Princess Half Marathon in the next few years. I’m really proud of the progress I’ve made, and although it might be an exaggeration to say that I like running now, I’m happy to report that I at least tolerate it.
I’ll close by saying that however weird and uncomfortable this year of remote and hybrid learning may seem at the start, I feel totally confident that we can do hard things together, and make it an incredible year of thinking, learning, and taking action. I can’t wait to jump in with you!
I’ll close by saying that however weird and uncomfortable this year of remote and hybrid learning may seem at the start, I feel totally confident that we can do hard things together, and make it an incredible year of thinking, learning, and taking action. I can’t wait to jump in with you!
Page updated
Report abuse