Hello NRE community! My name is Ashley Ives and I am the Significant Support Needs teacher for K-6. I am starting my second year here at Northridge and I couldn't be more excited! So, a little about me:
Where do I begin...? I moved to Fort Collins, CO in 1999 from Hays, KS where I went to elementary school through high school and attended one year at Fort Hays State University, majoring in Journalism. While living in Fort Collins, I attended Front Range Community College studying psychology. I moved to Denver in 2010 and a year later began my studies at Metropolitan State University of Denver, majoring in Special Education with a concentration in English. I graduated Magna Cum Laude and received my SPED Generalist degree (K-12), highly qualified in ELA. I am also the recipient of the prestigious "Outstanding Student Award" for the School of Education at MSU. It's easy to see that I am pretty serious about education! My love of learning and diversity can be seen in my classroom, where we celebrate uniqueness and individuality. I use every moment as a teaching opportunity for my students (and my own children!), where strengths are used as the foundation to learn skills that transform deficits into discovery. I am ever grateful that parents share their children with me and, if teaching them isn't wonderful enough, I get to create an amazing community with everyone involved in their lives: parents and family members, educators, staff, and most importantly- the students. And to finish... "How powerful would our world be if we had kids who were not afraid to take risks, who were not afraid to think, and who had a champion? Every child deserves a champion, an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection, and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be." -Rita Pierson |