Katie Preston ’02

As a first-year, second grade teacher at a bilingual elementary school in Buckeye, AZ, Katie Preston says she relied heavily on materials and lessons from Cornell education courses to suggest changes almost immediately.

“By November of my first year I was suggesting units to my team that we ended up teaching across the grade level,” she says. “Everyone thought I was crazy when I moved the desks out and brought in tables.”

Preston was named Teacher of the Year for Buckeye Elementary for her efforts. And she now spends half time training other teachers in her school — a process through which she says she’s learned a great deal herself.

“As you begin your training to be a teacher coach you go through a reflective process where you focus on your own teaching,” she say.  “I can clearly articulate the how and why for all of what I do in my classroom.”

Preston majored in Spanish and elementary education at Cornell and is working toward a masters’ degree in bilingual education.  In addition to her Cornell coursework, she says campus leadership roles during New Student Orientation and elsewhere have helped her swiftly become a mentor and leader in her school.

She’s especially proud to have welcomed three new Cornell graduates to her rapidly growing district this year: Nicole Felten (second grade), Heather Gardner (sixth grade), and Brian Nawotka (first grade).