Meet Kristen Nan
KRISTEN NAN is a blogger, presenter, and award-winning educator for innovative practices. She’s also a believer in goodness, an idea generator, a risk taker, and a disruptor in education!
Kristen just completed another year as a third grade teacher at Hopewell Elementary, a school located in a tight-knit suburban community outside of Pittsburgh, PA. The area is a melting pot of Europe built on a strong work ethic, a steel mill, and an industrial revolution way of life. Kristen entered the profession 22 years ago, with the last 20 of those years spent in third grade.
Idea Tsunamis
Kristen is by nature a risk-taker, and her constant tsunami of new ideas can feel overwhelming for others at times. She’s the kind of person that says, “What’s the worst that can happen here?” while others are saying “Let me list all the ways this can go wrong!”
Although she can get rattled when not everyone is on board, she overcomes this weight by finding her people, her fellow risk-takers, and her supporters. Some of these people are within her district, and others can be found across her global PLN. That’s one of the reasons she finds it so essential to be connected with other educators around the world.
True Grit
Kristen’s blog prominently displays a header that reads “Call me stubborn, but I refuse to quit! T.R.U.E. G.R.I.T. is the foundation for success in learning and life! Exploring the dynamics of a successful classroom and how grit is a vital characteristic of student achievement.”
When asked why the development of grit is such a passion for her, Kristen observes that she’s relied on this competency ever since childhood. Her experiences have taught her first-hand how important this trait is, and that’s part of what fuels her mission to promote grit for educators and learners today.
On her site and in her writing, Kristen uses GRIT to represent goal setting, responsibility, imagining excellence, and a tough mindset to back it all up. This mix of heart, soul, and mind is what life is all about!
The starting point for building grit in kids is LOVE – when kids feel loved, known, and safe, they will be more willing to take risks and persevere through adversity. Building grit in our learners is also about not rescuing too quickly, allowing them those times of productive struggle, and making sure we don’t rob them of opportunities to conquer difficult challenges or solve problems through their own efforts.
Perfectionism can be an enemy to risk-taking and grit, which is something both educators and parents must recognize. When our students feel pressured to be perfect and not miss a single thing, they’ll be less likely to take risks or think creatively.
EdTech Innovation and Learning in Education
The excitement of learning something new never gets old for Kristen. One day after her last day of school this year, the ideas had already started cooking for the next year.
New apps and edtech resources energize her, and she gets a thrill out of the collaboration and connections that can result. She finished the year with an app smackdown in her third grade class, and her students blew her mind with their creativity and engagement.
Professional Goals and Self-Reflection
Kristen’s immediate focus is the process of self-reflection and learning that takes place after every school year, and this interview has been helpful in terms of engaging more deeply in this process. What should I be doing differently? How can I be better? These are the questions she asks herself while she sets goals and learns from other progressive educators in her PLN.
She’s also a big reader – she’s read over 50 books in the last two years – and she also loves to write about education when the opportunities present themselves. She doesn’t regret breaks in her blogging activities, because those breaks simply speak to other priorities and realities in her life.
She’s also working on a book at the moment, but she expects it to come out later this year. It will be co-authored by Jacie Maslyk. The title will be “ALL IN: Taking a Gamble in Education.”
Personal Passions Away From Education
The things that really bring life and energy back to Kristen start with the simplest: people, music, and laughter. She also loves to camp, kayak, take photos, and even draw, but none of it fills her soul without meaningful people and relationships in the picture.
Productivity Starts with Emotional Health
Kristen is a glass half full kind of person. She’s certainly seen her share of adversity and difficult times, but her orientation continually brings her back to finding the good in others and situations. “I’m a forgiver,” she says, noting that as we forgive others, it allows us to forgive ourselves. It also helps to give us the joy to ride above the critics or the unfair judgments of others.
Voices and Resources That Inspire Kristen’s Professional Practice
On Twitter, Kristen recommends following @BethHill2829, founder of #JoyfulLeaders and a source of continual inspiration.
Kristen’s favorite edtech tools at the moment are the Sphero Specdrums, which allowed her students to create some amazing things this year.
As a big time reader herself, it wasn’t easy for Kristen to pick out just one book. She settled on the recently released In Other Words: Quotes that Push Our Thinking by Rachelle Dene Poth. If you want to broaden your perspectives, give this book a read, and get to know the author on Twitter @RDene915.
Kristen has two educational podcasts to share. The first is Teach Better Talk with hosts Jeff Gargas and Rae Hughart (both former guests of the Teachers on Fire podcast) and Dr. Sam Fecich’s EduMagic podcast for pre-service teachers. Sam is also a former Teachers on Fire guest and is part of the Teachers on Fire Magazine writing team! You won’t go wrong by adding these podcasts to your podcast app subscriptions.
Kristen’s pick for channels on YouTube is ISTE. With the 2019 conference fast approaching, she’s been gobbling up everything this channel has to offer.
Connect with Kristen:
- On her blog: https://kristennan.com/
- On Twitter: @NanKr1120
- On Instagram: @NanKr1120
Song Track Credits
- Intro: Stand Up (by Mike Cosmo — license purchased at https://taketones.com/)
- Outtro: Bluntedsesh4 (by Tha Silent Partner, courtesy of FreeMusicArchive.org)
Teachers on Fire 