2021 Elementary Mathematics Specialist Scholarship Recipient
Christie Lee
Hillsboro, Oregon
Biography
Christie Lee lives in Oregon and has been a licensed teacher for 5 years. She expressed that she is truly honored to have been chosen for this amazing scholarship opportunity!
Her teaching career began at the age of four, when she made up math problems for her brother to solve. She is a first generation college graduate who loved math class, but found teaching math much more challenging than she anticipated. Her student teaching was all subjects in a dual language 4th grade classroom where math was celebrated and students enjoyed many experiences. Christie's B.S. is in Elementary Education with an ESOL Endorsement from George Fox University. Her first year of teaching was a 4th/5th split in Hillsboro School District, and she immediately enrolled in Graduate Level Mathematical Specialist courses to gain understanding of how to better teach math to her students. She has also taught 5th grade, multiple grade levels as a small group intervention teacher for math and reading, and Migrant/ ELL Summer School for two years where she taught high school science and math AVID curriculum.
Christie's Master’s of Education is in Learning, Teaching, and Curriculum with a Reading Intervention endorsement. She plans to finish the Mathematical Specialist program through Portland State University as soon as possible. She is grateful to the Hillsboro School District for encouraging teachers' exploration in mathematics through these courses, as well as numerous professional development opportunities around mathematics. As a child, she had a negative experience involving a failed grade on a geometry test in 2nd grade that set her up for a lifelong fear of all things involving geometry. As a teacher, she swore to make sure her students always felt safe and able to struggle around math concepts without feeling that they were a failure if they don’t get it...YET. Math is such an exciting subject, her FAVORITE and it is a wonderfully complex subject that all students can access given the proper amount of encouragement, exploration and time. Christie is a cheerleader for her students, and believes in them even when they don’t believe in their own abilities. She shares her math trauma from 2nd grade every year, and knows it has an impact on her students’ mindset.