Kylie Patinio-Petermann is in her 2nd year as the math teacher on the Manzanita team, the same team she was on when she was a student at Ashland Middle School. ”It was both strange and comforting to go from having Kristi Healey as my science teacher to being her colleague last year.” Kylie grew up in Ashland attending Bellview, AMS, and AHS but her family moved to Southern California her junior year. Still, her Ashland roots were strong and they eventually pulled her back.
Kylie went to college at Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu and got a degree in International Relations and a minor in writing. At her graduation ceremony, Kylie found herself struggling with her breathing. Knowing it was more than just nerves, she and her mom went to the ER where it was discovered that she had blood clots in her lungs and a rare blood condition that she continues to treat. While recovering from this near-death experience, a college professor suggested that she might enjoy teaching and should look into the Teach for America program. Despite having no experience teaching and not really liking math, she was assigned a math teaching position in Houston and found that she really enjoyed it. I guess her supervisor was right when he said people who don’t like math make the best math teachers!
After a two-year stint teaching in Hawaii (to be closer to her husband’s family), Kylie returned to Ashland with their daughter Eislie, who is now 3, and two big dogs, Mo’o (Lizard) and Mano (Shark). In addition to raising her daughter and taking long walks with the dogs, Kylie enjoys working out (yoga, HIIT, and Barre workouts are her favorites), riding her bike, and reading. She and her best friend are in a two-person book group and just read One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez together.
About returning to AMS, Kylie says “I really appreciate all the students’ willingness to rise to the occasion and to work together, especially in math which is not everyone’s favorite subject. I also appreciate the sense of community and support of everyone who works here at AMS. The amount of kindness every staff member exhibits makes this a really special place.”