HEATHER KELLY

FIRST GRADE TEACHER

Heather Kelly grew up in upstate New York in Saratoga County and attended SUNY New Paltz for college, graduating with a BFA in Printmaking with a minor in Art History and a BA in Women’s Studies. After college, Heather moved to Brooklyn and soon after attended Pratt Institute for graduate school, obtaining an MFA in Printmaking. Upon graduating from Pratt, Heather spent time working as an artist’s assistant and as a nanny before making the shift to solely working with children. During this time, she worked with children across a wide range of ages and spent some time as an art teacher at a homeschool preschool cooperative in Williamsburg.

In 2012 Heather made the change to working for an art studio as the office manager, and while she loved being immersed in the professional art world, quickly began to miss working with children. Realizing that her true calling was educating children, Heather went back to school to pursue a career as a teacher and graduated from Hunter College with an MSEd in Early Childhood Education in 2018. Heather believes in teaching from a place of creativity and thoughtfulness while developing strong relationships with children, helping them to become members of the classroom community who feel as though their voices are heard and valued.

During her time at Hunter, Heather had the opportunity to observe and student teach at a variety of schools across the city, and was lucky enough to be placed at PS 527 in January of 2018 for one of these experiences. While student teaching in First Grade and then Kindergarten, Heather was drawn to the school’s focus on community, inclusion and kindness. She was thrilled to join first the Kindergarten team as an assistant teacher for the 2018 - 2019 school year, and then the First Grade team as a head teacher beginning with the 2019 – 2020 school year. She looks forward to working with the students, families and staff in the coming year!