Kathie Laurence

Hi,
My name is Kathie Laurence. I teach Sociology and AP Psychology at Palo Alto High School. This is my second career and I have been at it for about fifteen years. My first career was as an athletic trainer at Stanford University where I took care of the athletes' injuries and helped them (hopefully) avoid some.

I live in San Martin with my husband, who is also in education, two sons, four goats, a dog and a cat. It is a long commute for all of us but worth it because we can have the animals. I was born in Palo Alto and went through the Palo Alto school system.

I am super excited about the Merit Program. I want to find other ways to teach sociology and psychology that uses technology in different ways. I have been using clickers and online textbooks for a couple of years but would like to add to that. I am very interested in learning about wikis. I have some ideas for assignments that I think will work well with wikis. I also want to learn about the capabilities of document cameras. If they are as good as they seem, I hope I can find some grant money to buy one.

I think that I am primarily a visual learner but I do try to use many methods in my teaching from lectures to student directed learning to labs and other activities.

I look forward to meeting you all in a few weeks. It should be a great summer!