ABOUT
Welcome!
My 22 years as a classroom teacher, professional development , and experience working around the United States and abroad, have allowed me to experience pretty much everything as an educator.
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My passion in creating instructional materials really kicked off, however, when I became a private tutor and realized I needed different materials to help my students outside of their school adopted curriculum. Additionally, I recognized the concern expressed by my homeschooling family members to have deep, concept-based materials, as well as those which provide the rigor to support their home or remote learning needs.
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As educators, there is never enough time to accomplish all that needs to be done. I am very proud and thankful that I can now offer ready-to-use materials that not only cover the basics, but also dive deep into concepts, link skills together, and possibly gaps that exist outside large expensive, district- wide curriculums. Supporting educators and students is important to me. Hopefully, these tools can give back your precious time and energy, and also help provide educational equity for all learners.
Engaging Lessons that Dive Deep into Concepts and Integrate Skills
Most of what I have taught in recent years, was not taught when I was young. I often find myself wishing I would have learned many of the strategies and methodologies I see kids learning today. As a child, I hated math, mostly because I never really knew the answer to "why" or "how" the answer was correct. I was taught, as many of us were, to simply memorize a collection of steps and procedures that showed little of the conceptual reasoning behind the work. I could memorize enough to get by in class, but never really understood why or how the algorithms worked, nor did I understand that there were actually other ways to do the problems. My relationship and love of math honestly only developed AFTER I became a teacher as I had to teach and explore the math myself, in order to provide a different learning experience for my own students.
LET ME HELP YOU PLAN!
My name is Corrie Bowman Ostrem and I have been a full-time, certified
teacher for 22 years teaching grades 2-7. I have a Bachelor of Science degree
in Elementary Education and a Master of Education in Curriculum and
Instruction from Montana State University-Billings. I specialize in Gifted
education and have extensive experience with math and science curriculums
in these grade levels. I have taught grade K-12 as a substitute teacher prior to
my regular teaching career. Additionally, I have worked as a private tutor over
the last 10 years and have taught for an online ESL learning company in
China for the two years. My experience teaching has been in both the state of Arizona and Montana, and at a private bilingual German/ English school in Berlin, Germany (3 years). I have extensive knowledge and training in the Common Core Curriculum and standardized testing platforms, but also have a great passion for extending the learning and creativity of gifted and motivated students. I have successfully taught over 3,500 lessons online to students from around the world. After school, I have coached math clubs, science bowls, science fairs, foreign language, art, film, architecture, and game-based clubs.
I have extensive experience teaching the full elementary spectrum of standards including the subjects of math, science, language arts, writing, reading, social studies, and art. My passions are in math and science fields, although I typically use a cross curricular approach to integrate all the subject areas into lessons. I believe in student choice and passion-based learning and am willing to tailor my teaching based on student interest or need. I believe all content and standards can be taught in a fun, interactive, and engaging themes, making learning much more fun and memorable. I have a strong desire to help kids reach their full potential and strive to provide opportunities for students to dive deeper into topics, go beyond the typical classroom standards, and develop a love of learning at an early age.
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Personally, I am a wife, mother, and dog-mom. I love the outdoors and can often be found boating, fishing, or camping. I have a son, two step sons, and two enormous labrador retrievers who keep me as busy as my children! Education is both a passion and hobby for me. I love my job and could not see myself doing anything else as a career! I hope to see you in the classroom soon!