About Me

KY 2015 Council for Teachers of ELA Teacher of the Year

My name is Hannah Stark and I teach Fourth Grade in a Top-Ranked school district in the state of Kentucky. After five years in first grade and five more years as an interventionist, I returned to the classroom and chose Kindergarten (funding for Title I ran short). 
 I have a true passion for finding ways to bring Kindergarten out of the dark ages and into the 21st Century while still holding on to some basic truths about how young students learn. I believe Kindergarteners today are different than they were twenty or even ten years ago and it's my responsibility to reach them and teach them as they require... with technology, with higher order thinking, and with the entire world in mind! 

After 3 years of teaching Kindergarten and LOVING IT, I took the opportunity to become a Reading Interventionist and be trained in the Reading Recovery Program.  This training has been AMAZING to say the least and I feel it's now my responsibility to share some of what I have learned with other primary teachers.

Once again, after 3 years of teaching reading intervention, I embarked on something completely new... SECOND GRADE! And, surprise! I loved it, too! This age was more fun than I've ever thought it would be and we had an amazing year together. BUT, change came my way again and I'm returned to the Kindergarten classroom to start my 18th year of teaching... 

AND IT WAS WONDERFUL!

But... then the unthinkable happened... the landscape of education changed forever with the pandemic. I plunged headlong into a year of teaching Kindergarten exclusively online. And while it was so rewarding, it also cause me to burn out and, once again, I found my self at the end of my 20th year of teaching feeling the need for change.

Only this time the change would be HUGE. I accepted a position teaching 4th Grade at our district middle school to begin my 21st year of teaching and have not looked back. Thankfully, my husband teaches Kindergarten so I still get to "scratch the itch" through helping him plan and developing resources for him. But, professionally speaking, I'm on a new high and look forward to creating and sharing resources for upper elementary reading soon!

I have three precious children of my own that are ages 16, 13, and 10, and my husband is a Kindergarten teacher/ middle school girls basketball coach/farmer. To say our lives revolve around children would be an understatement! Among family, school, church/community events, and sleep, I LOVE creating quality teaching products that reflect 21st Century students' needs and are aligned to the Common Core.