Ms. Keilbarth is Albuquerque Academy’s newest English teacher. Even though she hasn’t been at the Academy for very long, she still has a lot to say about our community. Ms. Keilbarth was born in Dallas but grew up in Seattle near the Puget Sound. She lived in Seattle until she was six and then moved to New Mexico, where her family has been living for many generations. She has fond memories of growing up in Seattle; however, she does not miss it there: “I’m a homebody and definitely feel more comfortable where my family is,” she said. She has taught grades 8-12, but this is her first year teaching 8th grade, and she calls it “a wonderful surprise.”

Ms. Keilbarth has been teaching for 18 years. She taught at La Cueva for 11 years and then became an administrator there before coming to the Academy. When asked why she decided to come to the Academy she gave a few reasons, one of which being that her oldest son attends the Academy and she was “very impressed with what he has been tasked to do within his classes and watching his growth over the past five years.” Another reason she wanted to come to the Academy is because she appreciates that  “the mission and vision are about the whole child, and not just the academics.” She had been wanting to find an independent school to work at, so when she saw the job opening, she jumped at the opportunity.

Because of Ms. Keilbarth’s extensive time teaching at a public school, she has some interesting insight on the differences between public school and private school. She mentioned differences such as class size and the teacher-to-student ratio. Another major difference she talked about was that “here at the Academy, the support for teachers is much more evident.” She also greatly preferred the schedule here at the Academy versus at public school because of the extra time to grade, plan, and meet with students. She reported,“I was working probably 15 hours of overtime planning and grading because the schedule didn’t allow me to do that in the school day.” The last difference she noted was that the students have “protected time that is important in growing up.” She talked about how at public schools everyone is forced to grow up very fast and be much more mature much sooner, but at the Academy they have more time to have fun and keep being kids. She feels that all of these differences help form the Academy’s wonderful community.

One defining moment in Ms. Keilbarth’s career happened in her 2nd or 3rd year of teaching, during her 10th grade classes’ poetry unit. She spoke about one student in particular that “caught me off guard.” That student had written a poem about ending their life. After reading the poem, she took her concerns to the counselor, and that student withdrew from school a few days later. After some time the student came back with their parents, and they told Ms. Keilbarth that by noticing what he had written she had saved his life. She felt that that was so powerful because “we as teachers don’t know the impact we have on our students.” She talked about how you can affect a student’s life as a teacher and that the importance of teaching is “the relationships teachers build with their students rather than the subject or content.”

Ms. Keilbarth has so far been very happy with her time at the Academy and is “very grateful to have the joy back in my job.” Be sure to stop by and say hello to Ms. Keilbarth in her office MK222!