Dear teachers, It’s a morning in January, and we’ve been committed to a writers' workshop for five months now. Fifth-grade students are confident in their role as authors and take their job of creating and sharing their voice very seriously. Our...
Kari Johnston
Kari Johnston is a fifth-grade bilingual teacher in Austin, Texas. She holds a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction with a focus on bilingual and bicultural education from The University of Texas at Austin. She currently serves as NCTE’s Elementary Representative-at-Large and is a former member of the Elementary Teacher Cohort. Kari was a 2022 finalist for Texas Teacher of the Year and received the 2025 Texas Outstanding Teaching of the Humanities Award. Kari is passionate about creating opportunities for her students to see themselves reflected in the classroom, particularly through literature. She fosters critical thinking in her students, emphasizing that learning is incomplete without an appreciation for every perspective. She collaborates with families and focuses on providing authentic opportunities to amplify student voices.