Keiko Yamanaka

Ms. Keiko Yamanaka
Primary Science
Room 117

I am very excited to be teaching primary science for the second year here at Newberry. Previously I taught first grade for nine years and second grade for three years also at Newberry.

 Although I was born inJapan, I was raised inChicagoand am a product of the Chicago Public School system.   After attending theUniversityofIllinois, I lived in New York and San Franciscoand then returned to Chicago for a career in the corporate world before entering the teaching profession.   In addition to teaching, my other interests are reading, cooking, sewing and fishing.  I am an avid animal lover and have a beautiful five year old goldfish who was named Sunny by one of my classes.

My philosophy as an educator is to create and foster an atmosphere to maximize learning. I not only want to maximize students learning capabilities, but  it is my hope that I can stimulate the students’ curiosity and desire to learn about the world around them by guiding them to explore and experiment in unraveling the mysteries of science and nature. 

There is an old adage which goes, “You can teach students a lesson for a day; but if you can teach them to learn by creating curiosity, they will continue the learning process for as long as they live.” I hope to create that curiosity in our students.