It's Wildcat Wednesday! Every Wednesday, we will spotlight a member of the LR Wildcat family.
This week we are introducing you to Gabi Fornes!
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Job Title:
Upper Elementary Art Teacher
Tell us about your family:
I am married to Mr. Fornes, who also works at LR. We have a 3 year old goofball named Tobi (he also goes to LR, shout out to the staff daycare and the school nurse!). We have two dogs, Ned and Chautzy, and a cat, Jim.
How long have you been a teacher/worked in education?
This is my 5th year in education and my 3rd in teaching.
What makes you passionate about education?
What isn't there to be passionate about?!? Teaching is the best career! What really gets me excited is getting to learn with and from my students. I believe that everyone has something to offer, Art is really great for finding what that something is. I also have learned a lot from my students I now know that popular celebration dance is called a "griddy", not "gritty" or "gurdy".
What is your must-have classroom item?
Reliable yet colorful whiteboard markers!
If you had to choose a different grade/subject to teach, what would it be?
Home Economics/FCS. Nearly every day, I use a life skill I learned from that class; I think it would be rewarding to pay those skills forward to future students.
What is something about you that might surprise people?
I have dyslexia. It's sort of funny; I didn't realize I was dyslexic until partway through my Master's program. I was listening to the text to speech version of one of my textbooks when the section on learning disabilities came up, and everything clicked! I always struggled with reading comprehension/spelling but would find ways around my difficulties (text to speech, speech to text, spell check etc). Some family members had a hard time understanding how I could have a learning disability because I had achieved a fair bit academically. This gave me the opportunity to educate about learning disabilities, having dyslexia doesn't make you unintelligent. I think a fair bit of what makes me creative comes from my dyslexia. :)
What is one item on your bucket list?
I don't really have a bucket list; however, I would enjoy getting to meet Hayao Miyazaki and tour studio Ghibli in Japan.
We’re so glad to have you as part of the Wildcat family!
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