ROBYN HERNANDEZ NAGREEN
Kindergarten Teacher
hernandezrobyn@aasd.k12.wi.us

I was born in Appleton and I have always lived here, other than attending college in Minneapolis.  I am the youngest of many children.  As a child, I enjoyed sports and was an avid reader, but I never really connected with school. Because of a promise I made to my dad, I decided to attend college.  It was there that I found joy in education.  My education professors took me under their wings and helped me to develop character and perseverance.  They really stuck with me...especially through my student teaching.  One of my assignments was to teach an inner-city sixth grade class.  It was also a language magnet school.  This meant that when I taught, the lessons were translated into three different languages at the same time.  That was quite the experience.

My first teaching assignment was at Appleton Christian School where I taught 4th-6th grade classes.  I really enjoyed working there, but after my daughter was born, I made a job change to Little Rock Day Care.  As the director, I developed an academic preschool and kindergarten program.  Because of a last-minute teacher resignation, I started teaching kindergarten until I could find a replacement.  I found that I loved it.

 I am now entering my twenty-first year of teaching. My undergraduate education degree is from North Central University where I also majored in Biblical studies.  Several years ago, I earned my Master’s Degree from Cardinal Stritch College.  My degree is designed for teachers who want to stay in the classroom and strengthen classroom teaching skills.  I focused on Direct Instruction and my thesis was on Direct Instruction reading success.  Since my Master’s Degree, I have earned 36 additional credits in education.

I enjoy being a mom.  My daughter, Alicia, is seventeen and entering her senior year at North High School.  She enjoys playing the violin and viola, competitive swimming, being with her friends and working at Qdoba.  My son, Emanuel (Manny), just turned fourteen and is entering his freshman year at North.  He likes to play football, competitively swim and play the cello and electric base guitar.  My husband, Paul, has an education degree, but he works for Aurora Visiting Nurses.  As a family, we spend a lot of time together and we enjoy being outside.  We like camping and biking.  Our favorite places to camp are Hartman Creek, Luna Lake and Three John's Lake, although our need to get away has subsided now that we moved to the country.  We have recently taken up mountain bike riding and I have found that I really like it.  In the winters we like to snowmobile.  To tell the truth, my family likes to snowmobile, but I like to spend time with them so I go along.  Quite a few years ago, both of the children expressed an interest in competitive swimming, so we became involved with a local swim team.  After school hours, most of my time is spent driving them to practices and taking them to meets on weekends.  A new hobby that I have become involved in is raising chickens.  We have an amazing coop in our backyard for our eight wonderful pets.  All of my students love to hear stories about my chickens.

I am looking forward to the school year.  I am always excited about teaching children to read and learn math.  The Core Knowledge curriculum is fun to teach and enjoyable for the children to learn.  I enjoy teaching the children through storytelling.  I always enjoy visitors, so feel free to schedule a time in the office and come on in.  I love for others to observe what the children are learning and see for themselves that children this young can have a genuine understanding of the core concepts in the curriculum.