Katie Robertson – Midvalley Elementary

Mrs. Robertson was the morning teacher for my son David’s third grade class. While in Mrs. Robertson’s class he grew to love reading. Roald Dahl books became a staple in our home because of the way Mrs. Robertson read his stories. David became excited to read a new book and became a better writer also. He began to read above grade level and exceeded the reading fluency benchmarks. David was diagnosed with Bone Cancer in April 2015 and wasn’t able to complete his third grade year. Mrs. Robertson stopped by and kept in touch with David during the summer and cheered him on throughout his chemotherapy treatments.

When it came time to return to school in August, David had a weakened immune system and entered the Home to Hospital program. Mrs. Robertson volunteered to be his home school teacher. She came to teach David weekly and shared stories from her new class. She taught David Math, Science and again captivated him by reading stories. She personalized lessons and kept him engaged with learning new things. She also challenged him to keep up with his class and stay on the same spelling and vocabulary tests. Mrs. Robertson was very accommodating and worked around David’s intense chemotherapy schedule. When David returned to school in January 2016 to his fourth grade class, he was able to stay up with the other students because of the teaching by Mrs. Robertson. Even better, David has continued to score at the top of his class on spelling and comprehension tests and been above benchmark on Math and Language Arts test as well.

Mrs. Robertson is a great classroom teacher and my son was rewarded with her one-on-one teaching as well. She is always smiling and treated David like any other student, looking past his bald head and feeding tube. During treatment, David was reserved around others, but never Mrs. Robertson. She had an amazing way of getting him to smile and laugh. Mrs. Robertson was such a blessing to have in David’s life during a difficult time.

–Marli Steen