Kathryn R.

Katie has been teaching at World Language High School (WLHS) in Chicago Public Schools since 2018. She has been teaching Exploring Computer Science and Chemistry for the past four years, and is excited to have two full sections of AP Computer Science Principles this year - the first year her school offered the course! Previously she taught math for two years at Colegio Panamericano in Bucaramanga, Colombia from 2016-2018 (where she learned Spanish), and taught chemistry and math at Peace and Education High School (also CPS) from 2014-2016. Though she started out with a B.S. in Chemistry (with minors in Math & German) and M.Ed. in Secondary Education from DePaul University, when she started at WLHS she was "voluntold" to teach computer science as well. She then took night classes over the next few years to add a teaching endorsement in Computer Science and fell in love with it! After school, Katie is a facilitator for the Girls Who Code club for the Little Village Lawndale HS Campus (WLHS is one of 4 schools on campus). In GWC, members learn about different programming concepts, discuss inspirational women in tech, and form strong bonds as part of the GWC sisterhood. She is also one of the lead teachers who brought a Learning Garden to the LVLHS campus and is a co-facilitator of the garden club. Outside of the classroom, Katie is currently co-facilitating a district-wide AP Computer Science Principles professional learning community (PLC) and is participating in a research project with The Learning Partnership to make the AP Computer Science Principles and Exploring Computer Science curricula more culturally relevant to her students' lives. In the past, she has also been a PLC lead for CPS Exploring Computer Science teachers and led professional development sessions on using Scratch programming in the CPS physics curriculum. As a member of her school's Instructional Leadership Team (ILT), she hopes to continue to grow the computer science department to include more classes like AP Computer Science A and robotics.