Katie Potts, MS

Teacher

Katie Potts began her teaching career as the director of private learning centers in San Francisco and San Rafael. She conducted diagnostic testing and designed and implemented individualized instructional programs for both remediation and enrichment. Her experience also includes three years of teaching high school English in Rwanda and Kenya with the Peace Corps. She has taught 5th grade for over twenty years at Beechwood School, a private non-profit for low-income students in east Menlo Park, with a majority of second language learners.

In the classroom Katie helps foster an environment conducive to risk-taking by encouraging students to be empathetic and supportive of one another. Social-emotional learning is incorporated as often as possible. Executive functioning is also crucial to student success, so time is spent discussing organization and study habits in addition to academic content. As the daughter of a literature professor and a photo-journalist, Katie grew up surrounded by books and has always loved reading and writing, passions she strives to pass on to her students. Using a multi-sensory approach, games and student-generated activities help keep students engaged, especially when approaching particularly challenging concepts.

Katie lives in La Honda with two dogs, a cat and two parakeets (former class pets), and enjoys hiking, swimming, camping and music.

Education

• BA, English
• MS, Education (Curriculum design and instruction)

Licenses

• Multisubject elementary credential; secondary (5 – 12) English credential