Meet Ms. Kellie, the First Grade teacher and Early Childhood Coordinator for Mountain Oak Community School. Ms. Kellie started her teaching journey because her daughter Bella needed more help than her own then education (an AA in Liberal Studies) supplied. Bella was enrolled in Head Start, where Ms. Kellie volunteered for two years and returned to college. Then her son, Sydney, went next and Ms. Kellie applied to be a substitute at Head Start while working on an Early Childhood Education degree. Ms. Kellie was hooked, taking every class she could for professional development.

To date, Ms. Kellie holds an AA in Liberal Studies, a Child Development Associate Certificate, a BS in Interdisciplinary Studies- Entrepreneurship, 35 conferences/seminars/professional development courses, and is in the process of enrolling in iTeach to obtain a full alternative teaching certificate. Ms. Kellie has earned in total 194 credit hours in subjects from PreCalculus to Early Childhood Education to Business to Law to Psychology (mostly from different majors). Reflecting her commitment to learning as a life-long pursuit. Did Ms. Kellie find answers for Bella? Yes! And, the approach preserved a relationship with her, now 22 year-old, daughter because as Ms. Kellie states, “we learned together and worked for her best interests.”

Ms. Kellie has seven years as a Head Start sub, a half year as a Special Needs TA, then two years as a regular TA. Moving up in Head Start taught her about the rules and regulations that govern teaching Pre-School. Ms. Kellie has worked at AAEC and Mayer High School, learning first hand her love for serving early childhood learning. Ms. Kellie gladly returned to my beloved littles as a Kindergarten teacher last year and a First Grade teacher this year.

Ms. Kellie is a high functioning Autistic. She has dyslexia and ADHD. She survived electrical trauma as a child of four. And, is also a wife of 23 years and a mother of two. She speaks five languages (French, German, Spanish,and ASL), with efforts to add a sixth (Mandarin). Ms. Kellie is known to share her life’s perspective with her families, “For whatever reason, I have both survived and thrived. It is my goal to teach those skills that helped me to everyone who will listen. Because it does not matter what you are handed, it matters what you do with what you have.”