Sarah Carp is our March Teacher of the Month!
There’s no better way to welcome spring than to recognize educators that have helped us blossom. That’s why we’re excited to introduce Sarah Carp, 5th grade classroom teacher at Buena Vista Horace Mann and 826 Valencia’s March Teacher of the Month! Read on to learn what Ana Sanchez-Balsells, Monica Mendoza, and Mira Carberry of Buena Vista Horace Mann (BVHM), along with students Mani, Azeeza, Gina and Josue have to say about Sarah’s impact on their lives.
Sarah is a dynamic educator with deep pedagogical knowledge and expertise who uses her teaching talent to dedicate herself wholeheartedly to her students and the BVHM community.
As an educator, she is adept at taking incredibly difficult, dense concepts and making them visual. As her students say:
“She teaches in a manner that is easy to understand. She helps you when you don’t get it. One time, I was stuck on a math problem and she walked me through how to solve it. She’s a really caring teacher.” – Mani
“She teaches in good ways. We get to do a bunch of different, fun activities. This one time we experimented with food and she also teaches us important things.” – Azeeza
The design of Sarah’s classroom is itself a reflection of the flexibility and the creativity that she embodies as a teacher. Upon entering her classroom, you’ll see a multitude of seating arrangements and options for students while they buzz and move around productively. This is a testament to Sarah’s flexibility, as she’s constantly thinking about her students and of new ways to respond to their academic and socio-emotional needs. Every morning, she arrives with new ideas and implements small, tiny changes that have powerful, profound effects on improving her classroom community.
Sarah takes the time to build relationships with her students. She is a constant observer, views each child as a whole person, and is their biggest advocate.She’s relentless in seeking the support students need and deserve, is able to build strong bridges between students’ home and school environments, and develops strong partnerships between herself and families. Furthermore, despite having a class of 22 students, she truly views each student as an individual and wholeheartedly embraces and celebrates their individual identities. As her student Gina says: “She respects people’s pronouns and cares about you.”
Ultimately, we think Josué concludes succinctly and simply why Sarah deserves to be 826 Valencia Teacher of the Month:
“She’s pretty nice. She’s kind and chill, but still pushes us to do our best work.”
Sarah is great at celebrating her students and we are excited to have the opportunity to finally celebrate her for all that she does for our community!