Welcome to Fifth Grade!! My name is Kathy Schwiebert, and this year, I will be teaching Reading to all the fifth graders, and one class of Math. I have been at Prairie Vale for 15 years and it feels like home!
I am originally from Euclid, Ohio. My husband, Peter and I have been married 27 years and we have two children – Matt, who is a graduate of Truman State University and is living and working in Kansas City and Kristin, who is in the last semester of her Vet Tech program at OSU/OKC.
I have always wanted to be a teacher, and I started teaching over 35 years ago. Along the way, I have had a few detours! I have been a pharmaceutical sales rep, a hospital sales person, a business consultant, and I took a few years off to be a mom!! I LOVE reading, so teaching reading to 5th graders is my dream job!!
Working at Prairie Vale has been a rewarding and challenging career. In the course of the last 15 years, I have had the privilege of receiving a Japan Fulbright Fellowship and spent 3 weeks in Japan as a guest of the Japanese government. I was also awarded a “Fund for Teachers” grant that allowed me to explore Immigration in New York City, with a focus on Ellis Island. Several years ago, I went through the rigorous National Boards process and I am now a Nationally Board Certified Teacher. I have also been the Prairie Vale and Deer Creek “Teacher of the Year”. All these experiences have helped me to craft a curriculum that is rich in cultural awareness and classic literature. We will read kid-friendly versions of “Don Quixote”, “Hamlet”, and “Sherlock Holmes”. We will be memorizing and analyzing classic poems and speeches by people like Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, and William Shakespeare. But most importantly, we will be reading – all kinds of literature – and we will be learning to analyze what we read and respond to it.
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