Ginger Healy '89 - Interim Director of Grades 3-5; Former 5th Grade Teacher

This is my tenth year as a Curtis faculty member. It is a particular honor to teach at Curtis, as it is my alma mater! A Los Angeles native, I graduated with a B.A. in Communication from the University of Southern California. I then received my Multiple-Subject California Teaching Credential from California State University, Northridge, and my M.A. in Education with an emphasis on Pedagogy from Pepperdine University. I taught as a Lower Elementary Associate Teacher from 2007 to 2011, when I joined the Upper Elementary division as a 5th grade homeroom teacher. I am finishing my sixth year in 5th grade and continue to learn more about myself as an educator and a learner. The next step in my journey is to experience history itself by exploring the sites of our country’s birth.

Ever since beginning my journey in 5th grade, I have been fascinated by the American history we study in our social studies curriculum. Year after year, I watch in awe as 5th graders enthusiastically dive into the subject, soaking up facts about events such as the Boston Tea Party and meeting colorful characters like Benjamin Franklin. By traveling to the sites of some of the 13 English colonies and early European settlements, I will explore, firsthand, elements of daily colonial life, reasons why Europeans decided to settle in the New World, and connections between Colonial America and America today. This journey will enhance my ability to provide rich classroom experiences for the students in our social studies curriculum and in interdisciplinary projects such as our colonial research project, our narrative journal essay, and our hands-on culmination project.