Kitten Vaa Mountlake Terrace, WA | K-6, Science, 2016

The official biography below was current at the time of the award.

Kitten Vaa, an educator for 17 years, has taught at Brighton School for six years. She currently teaches all subjects in second grade. Teaching kids to be thinkers and to love learning is her passion. She especially loves science and literacy. Outside the classroom, Kitten enjoys collaborating with colleagues around science. She collaborated with teacher leaders across the state through the Partnership for Ambitious Science Teacher Leaders (PASTL) and Washington State’s Science Fellows. As an instructional leader, she focused on implementing science teaching practices that supported highly rigorous learning environments in science; led small groups to analyze student work; and also shared her students' work and videos through these organizations. In 2015–2016, Kitten worked part-time as the K-6 science lead for Edmonds School District. She provided professional development for administrators, instructional coaches, and teachers with the Next Generation Science Standards. In addition, as a member of the K-12 STEM literacy team, she helped create a vision and framework to ensure all students have experiences in STEM literacy. Kitten earned a B.S. in psychology from the University of Washington. Kitten received a M.A.T. from City University, and a Washington State K-6 Elementary Education teaching certificate.

• High-resolution version of the official portrait photograph
• Awardee holding Presidential certificate between Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer, Michael Kratsios, and National Science Foundation Director, Dr. France A. Córdova.
• High-resolution version of the teacher profile photograph

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