Tell us about yourself!

My name is Kathryn Hageman and I am in my 17th year of teaching. I taught for 2 years in upstate NY and have been a 5th grade teacher at Diamond for the last 15 years. I am also currently in my 4th year of teaching a night class at Towson University. I’ve known I’ve wanted to be a teacher since I was a little girl teaching my stuffed animals. This turned into being a camp counselor and high school soccer and volleyball coach. Once I went to college my love of learning continued as I earned 2 masters degrees. What I love most about teaching is the relationships I form. The relationships not only with students, but with the staff. I pride myself on building a classroom environment where students feel free to take risks. They know it is alright to make mistakes and become stronger for it. At Diamond, I am the 5th grade team leader and head of our schools STEAM committee. I have run and organized STEAM days and STEAM nights for the entire school the past 6 years. I’m currently running an after school club with a local high schools national science honor society. The high schoolers come in and mentor the 5th graders with a science fair project. In April, the club will wrap up with a science fair and all the students will present their work. This is my 4th year running this club. At Diamond I currently teach 5th grade English Language Arts, compacted 5/6 math to 5th graders, and 2 different 5th grade science classes.

Who is your favorite NHL® player and why?

Alex Ovechkin – it’s fun to watch him succeed at something he loves to do.

What is your favorite part of the Future Goals™program? How do you see STEM in the game of hockey?

I like the science simulations and linking them back to my classrooms hands on experiments. My class loved watching the live presentation about the ice at the hockey rink. We made our own rink to have in the classroom, so we could do the experiment as we watched and followed along.

If you played hockey, what position would you play and why?

I was a college volleyball player, and loved being able to block the ball. So if I played hockey, I think I’d want to be the goalie who kept the puck out of the net.