Kristen Stewart  

Educational background and experience:

Prior to teaching at Front Range I have had a variety of different experiences in the field of Education.  While completing my graduate studies at UCD to complete my teaching certificate I was a group leader at a KinderCare for 1 year and I received a stipend from the University of Colorado to teach special education to students with Mild/Moderate needs at Kearny Middle school in Adams District 12 for 1 year.  In addition to these experiences I worked as a long-term substitute special education teacher at Ponderosa High school in Jefferson County for the better part of a year.  Later I taught students with Severe/Profound needs at John Dewey Middle School in Adams District 1 for a year.  After taking a break to stay home with our first child I was given an opportunity to develop and oversee a fledgling pre-school and parent’s day out program at Centennial Community Church which allowed me to bring our little ones to work.  I home schooled our oldest son for his 1^st-3^rd grade years of school due to some learning struggles he had. After a brief one year break from home schooling and sending both of our boys off to school for the first time ever, I was given the opportunity to work here at FRCS.  I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication from University of Colorado and am just shy of a Master’s Degree in Special Education, also from CU.  I held a Colorado Special Education teaching license for 10 years and am currently finishing professional development credits needed to renew it after it expired 2 years ago. I am working towards becoming a reading specialist.

Why do you teach?  

I teach in the field of special education because I believe that all children can learn and all children deserve a chance to feel successful in school and need people to help them understand their challenges and how very possible it is to overcome them.  Now that I am teaching in a Christian school it is my heart to impart to children who struggle to learn, that they are wonderfully and uniquely made for divine purposes in God’s Kingdom and that the very challenges they face in school are just a part of their preparation for the adventure God has planned for them.

Why do you teach at FRCS?

It must have been a part of God’s plan because it wasn’t something I had planned to do.  I am however enjoying the opportunity and learning so much from it.  I see a lot of wonderful things happening at FRCS.

I have a passion for people who our world thinks of as “less than” and for listening to their stories and looking into their eyes and telling them “you matter, you are valuable and you have been created for a purpose by our Father in heaven that loves you more than you or I can imagine”.

Exercise, dance, travel, reading, listening to live music, ministries for helping people out of homelessness, photography, learning a second language, taking classes in reading instruction