Spanish maria.torron-gomez@intergenerational.school

Maria Torrón-Gómez graduated from the University of Puerto Rico with a degree in Literature and Humanities. After moving to Miami, she completed a Master’s in Modern Languages Education from Florida International University. She is a member of the Foreign Language Teachers Association and the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, and has been a certified AP Spanish teacher and exam reader with the College Board since 2006.

Mrs. Torrón has been a teacher and mentor for over 30 years. She worked with Miami-Dade County Public Schools for over 15 years, teaching all levels of Spanish from kindergarten to high school. These teaching assignments provided a great opportunity to use her skills as a strong language teacher. Mrs. Torrón also includes her knowledge of history, literature, and the humanities in her practice.

She started and expanded an International Baccalaureate program at John A. Ferguson HS and became IB certified, later training and supervising 16 teachers in 8 different languages offered at the school. Mrs. Torrón taught and led an ESL department in Boston, MA for two years, where she also got an active certification in Spanish k-12.

She published a short, bilingual story dedicated to her late father in June 2012. She now lives in Bellingham with her husband Jose and continues her passion for teaching.

English Language Arts austin.johnson@intergenerational.school

Austin was born and raised in Washington state and feels a strong connection to the area. He completed his BA in Literature with a minor in Anthropology before earning his teaching certificate at Western Washington University. As a language arts teacher, it is important to him to share the significance and necessity of stories in all of our lives. He is very excited to prepare his students to better understand the world around them through critical literacy. Outside of school, Austin loves to read comic books, train Pokémon, and play games at his local game store

Math katelin.catwell@intergenerational.school

Kit is excited to make math more accessible for students at WIHS. So many students are put off by math, but math is just a language like any other. She wants to help break down the barriers WIHS students are facing in mathematics and build up their understanding and confidence in themselves.

In her free time, Kit loves to work on creative writing projects, build Lego models, play video games and board games, watch anime, read, draw, swim… the list goes on! She also plays three different musical instruments: the ukulele, the banjolele, and the kalimba!

Kit is so excited to be a part of WIHS! She loves being able to work with a passionate and energetic group of educators and help positively impact the students. Kit loves the independence WIHS fosters in its students, and how it challenges them to think about problems critically and creatively to come up with novel solutions.