Kat O'Brien

I believe I was born to be in classroom. Growing up and playing make believe I always wanted
to play “school” and to be the teacher. My friends would try to convince me to play anything else
but I always stood my ground. While in high school my love of “playing school” finally came to
life. We were asked to work in schools and I fell in love with the classroom from a new
perspective. I came home after the first day and proudly announced that I was going to be a
teacher. When it came time to apply to colleges I had no hesitations to apply to study Elementary Education. After starting out at Boise State University, I transferred back home and continue to study at San Jose State University. After moving back home I started working in a third grade classroom as an Instructional Aide. I worked with students one on one while the teacher was explaining the lesson to the rest of the class. The students I worked with needed more attention and explanation that was first offered. I loved seeing challenging material be tackled by my students and then seeing their confidence grow. I stayed in that room for three years before moving to another school district and becoming an Intervention Aide. Again I worked one on one with students to tackle material however this time it was all Math and spanning from second grade to fourth grade. I’ve loved working one on one with students and seeing their educational confidence grow when they accomplish “impossible” lessons. My goal for myself is to one day have my own classroom.

When I was a student in elementary school I liked the idea of school, the teaching to be specific,
but wasn’t fond of the learning portion itself. I found my mind wandering and would often be
behind when I came back into focus. It wasn’t until I was in a class with a teacher who saw how
I was struggling that my love of learning came back. They then helped me to come up with
organizational systems that would keep me on track and even worked with my other classes so I
would be flourishing in all subjects. As a tutor I want to be the inspiration that I had in school.
My goal is to work with students to find what their love is in school.

When I’m not in the classroom, I love to bake and cook. I love trying new recipes or trying new
places to eat. I’m also a minor bookworm, I recently bought a kindle and it’s totally paid for
itself already. If I have the time I also love to hang out at the beach, Half Moon Bay usually.
Watching the waves and listening to the surroundings while reading is my idea of bliss.