Hi I’m Susan Abrahamsen.
I grew up on a horse ranch in Aurora, Colorado. My dad had an Appaloosa breeding ranch ,breeding thoroughbreds with Appaloosas. Going to the racetrack and seeing his horses run was pretty common for the family driving to the Centennial racetrack in Littleton,Colorado. I showed horses, ran barrels and competed in pole bending. I was shown and learned hard work, even though it was rewarding.
I have taught in Regensburg, Germany for 11 years and Orange, New South Wales for one year. I love culture! Being in this school with all the diversity is amazing! I taught gifted and talented students in Germany and had many opportunities to share with students. I’ve had student trips to Lithuania,Netherlands and Berlin,Germany for Odyssey of the Mind competitions and invitationals. There were Incredible field trips to a falconry with students wearing toilet paper roll binoculars and Germans pointing at them while the students concentrated so hard on viewing the variety of birds of prey flying to their trainers.Then to a professional movie studio where students had the chance to dub “Babe” a children’s pig movie, ride the Never-ending Story dragon, and saw where Das Boot was filmed.
I have recently been in charge of gifted and talented in seven elementary schools in Adams 14 Public Schools. Students and used critical and creative thinking,coordinated Destination Imagination teams, and involving parents and students as a team to create new animal costumes ( with recycled items) for their students' new animals (two animals put together like a girdle(jirdle)=giraffe+turtle.) while students created masks and paws.After that student created plays or skits. Older students built small engine contraptions and robots,constantly problem solving and practicing persevering.
Other leadership opportunities I had were actually outstanding.One was a school-wide Guinness Book of World Records through Walden Media, reading the same two pages of Charlotte’s Web,world-wide, all at the same time. Another one was working with a science teacher and Boulder-based Bio-Served Space Technologies with a benchmark of spiders and butterflies comparing them to the same kind that was flown to the Space Shuttle to notice anti-gravity experiments. Students could observe in the classroom benchmark species and online with a link to the Space Shuttle spiders and butterflies.
I am a nationally published author through magazines. I also enjoy science, math and reading.
I am off the charts excited to work with you and your child. Seeing them progress, learn and enjoy hard work is my mission. I will advocate for your child.
Susan Abrahamsen
Talented and Gifted Coordinator
[email protected]