Katie Keier
Katie Keier
Katie Keier has been a teacher for 18 years -- teaching, learning, and playing with children in grades 1-8 -- all thanks to her high school French teacher. "I wanted to be just like her. I've always loved reading and books and I wanted to help kids learn to read and learn to love learning just like I do," Katie says.
Katie received her bachelor's degree from Radford University and her master's degree in literacy studies from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She is a National Board Certified Teacher.
Her expertise and interests lie in early literacy instruction and how children learn through multiple modalities. She is also interested in arts integration, critical literacy, creating a strong classroom community, and children's literature.
Katie says that she loves to teach because she loves the look on children's faces when they discover something for the first time. "I love the endless curiosity and 'why' questions. I love how they try to make sense of the world. I love teaching children to read, and seeing that light come on for the first time. I love hearing 'read it again!' after a favorite story."
She believes that in order to create lifelong learners, teachers also have to be lifelong learners themselves. "I am a huge reader of professional books," Katie says. "I think talking about books we read with other colleagues is a great way to learn and grow as teachers." Katie also likes to connect with fellow teachers through social networking sites like Ning and Twitter.
Catching Readers Before They Fall is Katie's first book and she found that she needed to read a lot before beginning to write. "I revisited all of my old favorites from Nancie Atwell to Lucy Calkins to Katie Wood Ray and Regie Routman. I found myself reading their books with a different eye -- coming from a writer's perspective."
Katie likes to be active and spend time outdoors. She is a runner and is working toward a qualifying time for the Boston Marathon. "Running is where I get my inspiration, my quiet time, and my energy," she says. Katie and her partner Joseph have a Yorkie name Cayo and they like to spend time in Key West, Florida, riding bikes and kayaking.
