Carolyn Helmers





Carolyn Helmers earned her undergraduate degree from Northern Kentucky University. She was hired, mid-year, right out of her student teaching experience to teach kindergarten at Maddux Elementary where she attended as a child and has remained her entire career. She has been teaching half day or full day kindergarten since she began teaching. She earned her master’s degree in education from Marygrove College. She was trained in Reading Recovery at The Ohio State University. 

Emergent literacy has been Carolyn’s passion since early in her career. She is a lifelong learner and strives to further her understanding of how young children acquire literacy skills by attending local and national professional development opportunities and literacy conferences. She is an avid reader of professional books, journals, blogs and occasionally participates in Twitter chats. 

Carolyn has presented at district, local, state and national conferences. Her topics have included small group reading instruction, literacy in a play-based kindergarten and guided writing. She has instigated and led several book studies in her building to help build a common language and understanding around early literacy instruction. 

At the district level, Carolyn played an integral part in researching and creating the inaugural all-day kindergarten program that focused on the social and emotional wellbeing of the child as well as purposeful play and academics. She has served on several curriculum committees and helped to ensure the best resources were available to classroom teachers. At the building level, she is a part of the building leadership team and serves on the PBIS and SEL/Wellness committees. She mentors new teachers when they join her kindergarten team and has been a cooperating teacher for several student teachers through the years. 

Personally, Carolyn has been married to her husband for as long as she has been teaching. They have two grown children. In her leisure time, she enjoys running, reading, binge watching TV shows and playing disc golf. 


Carolyn Helmers

Twitter: @carolynhelmers

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