New kindergarten teacher in Plains

PLAINS - The Plains Elementary School will be welcoming a new Kindergarten teacher this fall; Katie Hillerman will be the newest addition to the Plains School faculty.

Hearing that there would be an opening in December, she inquired about the position, and in May officially applied for the position and was notified that she had gotten the job.

“I just wanted to move to Western Montana... I like the size of Plains,” Hillerman said. Hillerman is originally from Helmville, Montana. She explained how the there were only three teacher positions open in North West, Montana and that she was lucky to get the position.

Hillerman graduated December, 2014 from Montana State University in Bozeman, with a Bachelors in Elementary Education. She was a student teacher for a kindergarten class in Alaska, and after graduating she taught sixth grade half a year in Geyser, Montana.

Having taught kindergarten as a student teacher, Hillerman comes with experience in how kindergarten classes work, and she feels she knows what to expect.

“Some kids come in knowing all the letters and sounds and some kids have never seen a letter,” she said, then saying as preparation, “I have to plan for every ability.”

In addition to her understanding of child learning abilities, Hillerman also expressed her understanding of what it means to be a  student.

“It’s different in kindergarten, they’ve never been to school and it’s exciting and sitting down can even be a challenge,” Hillerman said.

As part of her planning and preparation for the upcoming school year, she says that she intends to follow a curriculum where the students will, “Mostly to recognize all the letters and then match the sounds and as the year goes on, try and figure out words... and then in math, they need to recognize the numbers and even by the end of the year they are supposed to be able to add and subtract.”

To teach her students the fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic, Hillerman says she plans on using, “Lot’s of hands on and group work and discovery work.”

Hillerman said she is ready to start the year and has already begun preparing her classroom and is preparing the curriculum.

Feeling prepared and confident, Hillerman, explaining herself, said, “I would say I’m half and half, I do a lot of fun things, but I definitely expect them to behave.”