Can't Play by the Rules.....

 I am just your not so normal English teacher turned Technology Integration Coach: A Creative thinker, Insatiable learner, Schoology Ambassador, LA County Teacher of the Year, CATE Classroom of Excellence, and Maker Mom. My passion is being creative and thinking outside the box.

  

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Some Cool Stuff I've done and Soooo Many Acronyms

Teacher of the Year Waite Middle School 2013
Teacher of the Year  Norwalk La Mirada District 2013
Los Angeles County Teacher of the Year 2013
CATE Classroom of Excellence Winner 2012 


UCI Writing Project Fellow 2009
MA in Curriculum and Instruction  2007
JFMF Fulbrite Fellow 2005

CUE presenter 2015
CATE presenter 2010
SCTE Presenter 2009 - 2013
CLMS Presenter 2007, 2010

A poem I wrote

I Teach
by Kelly Baker 

I find 
I find new insight when I am in the world
I find words swirling around people walking to grocery stores and laundry mats
I find my voice
I find my words
I find time

I let go 
I let go of my insecurities as a writer – we are all writers
I let go of 20 years of not writing – there is time
I let go thinking I have nothing to say – stories are everywhere
I let go thinking I can’t take the time to write - there is time
I let go that art is something only painters do – we are all artists

I hang on
I hang on to smiles and kind words
I hang on to the full court press – reading deeply to improve
I hang on to word choice and structures - noticing the nuances that were anguished over
I hang on to guidance and encouragement and occasional wrong words

I see students who will no longer be strangers as
I hear their voices so clear in what they write
I know them as writers
I hope they all do too

I am changed