Meet Mrs. Harns:  Lilly Chang, our eDragon News special article writer, interviewed new 1st grade teacher Karen Harns last week.  Read on to find out more about Mrs. Harns and her experiences at Pennekamp.

What do your students want to know about you?  The number one question asked of me was, "How old are you?", which is cute, and of course I answered them, “I'm 37.”  Another question was, “Do you like to cook?”  They actually asked me questions about some of my hobbies that I hadn't talked about in class, so their questions were very intuitive.  I love to cook, I love to swim especially in the ocean and then I was asked what my favorite color was, which is pink!  They also asked me what I liked about school.  I basically gave my 1st graders the same answer for if I was a child or if I was a teacher, and as a student it was meeting my new teacher, learning in class, and having fun while I was learning.  If I were the teacher in school what I liked best about school would be meeting my new students, loving to teach them, and having them learn how to have fun while learning.

Do you have any pets?  I have pets - 2  rabbits (but 1 passed away the other day), 2 birds, a tortoise, and fish.

How would your student describe you?  If my students were choosing words it would be silly and kind, let's see, enthusiastic but full of energy maybe, probably fun and funny with a good sense of humor.

What do you enjoy reading?  I don't have a lot of time to read, I'm usually reading magazines and a lot of times they're health magazines.  I love cookbooks.  I also love Harry Potter, I tend to read more towards the kids books, and the Harry Potter series I just absolutely love and I loved the Harry Potter movies.  I see more kid type movies and read more kid type books than I do anything on the adult level.

Do you have children?  I have 2 boys, Charlie is 11 1/2, he's a sixth grader at the middle school this year who just graduated from Pennekamp.  Parker is 9 1/2 and just started 4th grade here at Pennekamp with Mr. Hunt.

What kinds of activities were you involved with as a student?  Being born and raised in Manhattan Beach, I played all kinds of sports.  I played soccer for 10 years, baseball for 4 years, I also played volleyball but not at school, and when I was in High School and Junior High I was involved in student council, and was homecoming princess and Christmas dance queen at Mira Costa.

What is your educational/teaching background?  I started working here at Pennekamp when I was 20 as a teacher's assistant, while getting my teaching credential.  I got my teacher credential at CSU Dominguez Hills where I graduated.  I have to be honest with you, I'm lucky...I've always known I wanted to be a teacher!  I think that stems from the fact that my father was a teacher, so I grew up as a child of a teacher who taught at Mira Costa in the community that we live; so I was also used to wanting to be a teacher in the community where I live and where I was going to raise my own kids.  I've had that passion ever since I was probably in high school and then just pursued it from there.  I was teacher assistant from the time that I was 20 to about 25 while I was getting my credential, and then I was a substitute teacher for a year and then that of course was teaching all different grade levels in the community.  I stayed home for 8 years to raise my kids and came back to teaching 5 years ago, and I've taught kindergarten for 2 years and 2nd grade for 2 years.  This is my first year teaching first grade.  I've stayed in the primary grades, K through 3, those are my favorite grades!

How is Pennekamp different from Grandview?  I have to say the number one difference is the size and the number of teachers that are in a grade level.  I love that Pennekamp is much much smaller.  Grandview has over 700 students this year.  The number of teachers on a team in a grade level, and being at a smaller school with a smaller team...it's just nice!  It makes communication and organization a little bit easier when you're working with a smaller group of teachers.  The thing I really love about teaching at Pennekamp is being able to work as a team with my coworkers, being able to collaborate and having the time to share ideas.

How would you describe yourself in 5 adjectives?  Well I'd have to say enthusiastic, I'm generally a very happy person, I consider myself to be kind and caring, it's hard to describe yourself but I'm hardworking and structured, but in a positive way.

What kinds of interests do you pursue?  My number one hobby is gardening and then traveling with my family; basically we function as a family and do everything as a family.  My own personal interests are gardening and cooking; with gardening it's my one time to enjoy peace and quiet.  I love flowers, my favorite flowers are roses and orchids.  I grow orchids, they are very difficult to grow - it's a challenge and I like challenge.  Another hobby, that I do it here at school is telling stories.  I love to read out loud, the kids love to listen; I do it at home with my own kids but I love to do it here at school as well.

What is your greatest success in teaching?   I think my greatest successes occur every year.  Every year I get to teach the kids to enjoy being at school, to enjoy learning and have fun doing it.  School is a serious business but you can laugh and have fun and be silly.  I love instilling a love of learning.

What do you think is the the most difficult challenge facing students today?  There's so much pressure in this world and often times it's making its way into education.  There's the pressure to do more and to learn faster and to do things quicker than we ever did before. I sort of wear two hats, one as a parent and one as a teacher.  I really, really truly believe and will probably always believe that a child is a child at a certain age level and that age appropriate activities are what we need to steer our kids towards and to not push beyond, I'm looking at the whole child, balance is what I'm trying to achieve, and I love making learning fun!  The balance is for students to be successful without being overworked.

What do you think is the greatest challenge facing teachers today?  To make sure you can reach every single child in your classroom.  At Pennekamp, I’m blessed that I have twenty in my classroom, which makes a world of difference.  You can actually spend a lot more time with individual students.  As a teacher you get twenty different kids, with twenty different learning modalities, twenty different personalities, and twenty children in different stages of their learning career, and being able to work with each and every person is the challenge.

How would you describe the Pennekamp parents?  The parents are very responsive and very supportive!  I love working in a school where I actually know many of the parents, because I'm living in the same part of the community that I'm working in!

How would you describe your classroom management style?  The one thing that we talked about in class and the one big thing that I talk about with the students is that we're a family in this classroom.  We're a family away from their family at home, and so we function that way and treat each other as brothers and sisters and we treat each other respectfully.  We're all here working together; we need to manage ourselves, everyone cooperates, everyone respects each other and gets along with each other.  I have super simple classroom rules, my number one rule is to always try your best, to do your best work; my number two rule is that mistakes are OK, everyone makes mistakes and you just need to try again. I'm always teaching children to make good and better decisions!

I love teaching in the community that I live in...I've come back home to Pennekamp!