Kelly Cruz McCullers '86
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Fairfax County Public Schools
Video Call
In Person
I graduated from Catholic University in 1990 with a BA in English, and earned my MA in Elementary Education from Boston University in 1991. I have been teaching ever since, beginning in DC Public Schools and later moving to Fairfax County Schools, where I have taught since 1994. I have worked with first graders for almost my entire career.
MORE
When I decided to become a teacher, my goal was to work with children in first and second grade. I had worked in childcare, and knew that I wanted to be a part of my students' earliest school experiences. I have worked mostly in Title One schools, where I've learned the incredible reward in working with at-risk students and their families. As a first grade teacher, I quickly found my place and my passion in teaching reading. In 2002, I trained to become a Reading Recovery teacher. In this role, I provided one-on-one intensive daily literacy instruction to first graders who had been identified as at risk of not learning to read in the regular fist grade setting. This experience was challenging and rewarding in so many ways, and transformed me as a teacher of early literacy. After many years in this role, I felt the call of the classroom again, and am thankful to have been able to return to this type of teaching. To me, this is the ideal setting, as I have the privilege of knowing my family of six-and seven-year olds extremely well, and in every facet of their learning and development, while continuing to make the joys of literacy accessible to them.
