Email: ashaffer@santanlc.com
Site: www.santanlearningcenter.com/ashaffer
Hello! My name is Ashley Shaffer, and I will be teaching the first grade gifted class this year at San Tan Learning Center. I grew up in Windber, Pennsylvania, a tiny mountain-top town where most of my family still lives. I attended Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in Erie, PA, where I graduated summa cum laude with my Bachelor’s Degree in Education, and with an honors diploma. Studying abroad in Paris, France for a short time was another great opportunity I was able to experience. I moved out to sunny Gilbert in January 2008, where I have stayed since. I am now a certified Arizona teacher, with a Structured English Immersion endorsement, an Art K-12 endorsement, and an in-progress gifted endorsement. Last year, I was awarded special recognition at the Arizona Association for the Gifted and Talented for outstanding advocacy of gifted students.
I have been in the education environment for six years, as a teacher’s aide, art teacher, a preschool teacher, accelerated first grade teacher, and finally, first grade gifted teacher. This is my second year at San Tan and with a self-contained gifted classroom. Teaching gifted students has been a wonderful, enlightening, and exciting experience for me because I identify with their intense interests in certain subjects, their out-of-the-box ideas, and the fire they can light within themselves, which can only kindle if the adults in their lives support and enrich their ideas.
Having a few intense interests myself, I understand how important it is to support what sparks inquiry in students and the development of their unique talents. I love all sciences (especially astronomy and biology), the arts (especially drawing, painting, and illustration), travelling, and learning about other cultures (I am planning to go to Japan in 2013). I am so excited to start another year of adventure and learning at San Tan!