Title: Teacher
Company: Aurora Public Schools
Location: Aurora, CO United States

After working in corporate America for two decades, Lynn Hartmann felt like she was not giving enough back to the community she loved. She decided to switch gears and become a teacher, where she could touch the lives of the children in her community and have an integral part in their success. Ms. Hartmann has been in the field for 13 years now, and currently serves Aurora Public Schools as a fourth-grade teacher. Her aim is to create an environment where students can take risks and learn from their attempts. Although Ms. Hartmann enjoys every subject she teaches, she particularly likes science, where she has the opportunity to encourage children to explore the world around them and figure out how things work. She considers her greatest accomplishment to be helping students gain their independence.

The biggest challenge Ms. Hartmann faces is balancing her work with her family, especially because of the planning and preparation that goes into teaching at the elementary school level, where all subjects are taught. She loves what she does, however, and feels that the community needs her to do her job. If Ms. Hartmann could change one thing about her profession, she would eliminate standardized testing because it only provides a snapshot of the children.

Moving forward, Ms. Hartmann intends to refine her practice so that she can help her students can discover even more. She is particularly excited about working with a great new team of teachers this year to build student leadership. To ensure that the needs of every child are met, Ms. Hartmann and her peers provide both equitable instruction and inquiry-based instruction. The first involves differentiating instruction methods based on the students’ unique learning styles, and the latter involves allowing students to explore questions and provide evidence based-answers.

Ms. Hartmann prepared for this career by earning a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction with a focus on math and science from the University of Colorado, Denver, in 2005, and becoming certified as a linguistically-diverse teacher. She is inspired by her faith, and finds great purpose in helping children become everything they can be. When Ms. Hartmann isn’t working, she enjoys gardening, hiking, biking, and spending time with her niece, Amy.

Contact Lynn Hartmann