Ms. Carly Hansen
First Grade Teacher
Education: B.A. Psychology, Sacred Heart University; Master’s Degree, Elementary Education, Sacred Heart University.
What inspired you to become a teacher?
From the time I was a child, teaching was always my dream. I attended PreK at the same school where my mother was a teacher, and over the years, I learned a lot from being around her. She even let me help in her classroom when I was home on break from college, and I just loved being in that environment. I’ve never wanted to do anything else - I’m lucky to be living my dream every day.
What’s the best part of teaching First Grade?
I love seeing my students’ personalities and sense of self evolve throughout the year. At this age, they still ask so many “why” questions, which makes our lessons more interactive and interesting. The students are also learning a love of reading, which is important throughout their lives - we work on reading and comprehension projects, and it’s rewarding to see their decoding and comprehension skills develop over the course of the school year.
What’s your favorite subject to teach?
Math! I enjoy helping my students discover manipulatives and how to separate. We work on addition and subtraction, and we talk about ways that they can use math skills in ‘real life.’
What are some opportunities that are unique to 1st Grade?
I teach Science to both First Grade classes, and we work on “Project Groundhog” every year from February until the first official day of Spring. Using the groundhog’s prediction, the students track weather patterns, snow days, precipitation and temperature to see if the groundhog was correct. We also compare data with other schools throughout the US that participate in “Project Groundhog,” and the students love their “virtual connection” to see the findings of the other schools and how well the groundhog did in other parts of the country.
Is there anything about you that might surprise us?
Everyone knows I’m a Rangers fan, and I spend as much time as possible watching and attending games - my passion for the team is something I share with my Dad. You might be surprised to know that I was involved in the theater program at Sacred Heart University, acting in plays and then learning the backstage/crew process. When I arrived at GCS in 2015, it was a natural transition for me to step in as the Assistant Director of our annual production, which includes helping to build sets and running lines with our student actors.
Will you please tell us what this year’s play will be?
No way - But I recently told Snowball (our class elf) and my four dogs, Zoe, Lily, Adelle, and Dusty, so feel free to ask them!