Ms. Katherine Vermillion
Email: khvermil@mpsaz.org
Phone: 480-472-2706
Welcome back Stapley! I trust your summer was well spent with the adventures and relaxation everyone needed. I am so excited for a fresh start to a stimulating and promising school year. One of my favorite quotes comes from Mr. John Adams, a key man in the revolutionary movement within our country and our second president. When talking about the citizens of his time, he said…”we have been afraid to think…let us dare to read, speak, think, and write.” My hope, like John Adams, is that each one of my students will DARE to be educated. In a world where education is battered and diminished into something trite and secondary, I would hope that my students will be able to muster up the courage to “read, speak, think, and write” because knowledge is power.
This is my third year at Stapley, and through the support of the school, community, and parents, I have felt entirely at home here. Before moving to a dryer climate, I lived in Arlington, Virginia, five minutes out of Washington D.C., and I taught for four years in Fairfax County, Virginia. I originally grew up in Las Vegas, NV and then attended my undergraduate program at Utah State University; however, after a year of teaching in Utah, an intern position came open on Capitol Hill with the Judiciary Committee. Once the offer was extended, I could not refuse. I packed up my Western ways and prepared for some Eastern culture. I worked on the Hill for only three months before I longed to be in the classroom again. I interviewed for a position in Fairfax County Public Schools, and was offered a job. While I was in Virginia, I also worked as an adjunct faculty member at George Mason University teaching transitioning classes to freshman and seniors, and I was apart of a mentoring program for at-risk students. I loved Virginia, and I loved the culture and excitement that came from living five minutes from D.C., but as you can see, after four years, my ‘Western ways’ got the best of me, and I had to return home to the desert. I just finished (Woo Hoo!) working on a Masters degree at Arizona State University where I earned my degree in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in social studies. With both English and social studies under my belt, I hope to create curriculum for, and teach, interdisciplinary classes that combine the fascinating elements of both of these courses.
I look forward to teaching you. I will try my best to create a fun, positive learning environment, and I eagerly await the adventures that will come from it.
Welcome to a new school year!!!!
Ms. Katherine Vermillion