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Kim at 13 (in the middle with the hat); students doing science at The Catamount School
I didn’t always know I wanted to be a teacher. I thought I was going to be a researcher. Like the kids in the picture above, I thought I wanted to be hunched over a microscope or a petri dish, studying organisms.
Eventually, I figured out that I already was teaching. I taught gymnastics for years. Later, I was a camp counselor and life guard, taught swim lessons, and more. Eventually, I stopped fighting the urge and committed to my passion.
I grew up in Texas and teachers were trained for grades 1-8 when I was at university. There was almost no talk of middle school in my program and the only clinical experience I had was my own, at camp each summer. I learned to love young adolescents. They are weird and funny, unique and often stinky (and I mean that in a dual sense - both behavior and body). I found my way to middle school teaching kind of by accident, but it didn’t take long to figure out it was home.
While my love of science was what catapulted me into college, my passion for reading and writing has stayed with me throughout life and that is what I’ve wanted most to share with students. Teaching 7th and 8th grade ELA was always an adventure and I thrived on finding ways to get my students to love a book or be proud of their writing. In my current job, I get to see and experience all kinds of programs and people.
One of the most amazing adventures I have ever taken, by far, is our creation of a lab school. In 2017, we opened The Catamount School, a 6th-8th grade middle school designed to explore innovative teaching approaches and applied learning opportunities in order to help every student discover his or her full academic potential. TCS is in its second year and we are really only just getting started!
Kim K. Winter, Ph.D., Professor & Dean, College of Education and Allied Professions; Superintendent, The Catamount School, Western Carolina University
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