My name is Kerena Clifton and I teach middle school math and robotics. I was born in Idaho, graduated high school from Murtaugh, and went to college for 1 1/2 years in Virginia. I then returned home to finish up my associates degree at CSI. I always wanted to be a teacher and was working towards that before getting married and having kids. I still wanted to work in the school setting while I was raising my two boys, so I started working as a Paraprofessional in 2013. Throughout the 8 years I have worked in almost every grade level from high school to preschool. I learned so much from being in many different classrooms with different ages, different teachers and working with a variety of students. Last year, I decided I wanted to do more to help educate the students and started college again to finish up my teaching degree, then applied for this position. I am currently finsihing up my bachelors in education with WGU and am excited to help the students at RISE learn math. I really like the Summit curriculum, it brings deep thought and discussion into the classrooms and I am excited about where it will take us.
Math and problem solving is something I really enjoy. I hope to instill some of that joy into my students. Even though I liked parts of math when I was younger, I struggled with it at first. I had a teacher in college pull me aside and show me things I had never learned before. Math finally started to make sense and I love the challenge of it now. I know how it feels to struggle and not feel confident in my skills and can empathize with kids that may be experiencing the same thing. I was one of them! One of my goals is to help them see that they don't have to be "good" at math to be successful with it. I want them to know that mistakes are just a step in the learning process and if they are willing to work hard, be resilient, and persistent they can acheive whatever they set out to do, including math.
Just a reminder, I have kids coming to Homework Help after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So if any one needs some extra support, that is a great time to take advantage of. Anyone interested can contact me for further information.
kclifton@kimberly.edu