B.A. in English, 2006; Teaching Credential, 2009; MA in English, 2012
School of Education
May 1, 2011
“I always entertained the idea of teaching.”
Katherine Dualan Addiss teaches English Language Arts to college preparatory and honors level students at University High School in Irvine. She was recently recognized as Irvine Unified School District’s 2011 Teacher of Promise.
Inspired by her mother Suzanne Dualan who had formerly been a teacher, Ms. Addiss always entertained the idea of teaching. Her freshman English teacher, Michelle Ronga at Saint Lucy’s Priory High School in Glendora, California, solidified her desire to teach, and from that point forward, she knew that teaching would be somewhere in her future.
An Anteater through and through, Ms. Addiss received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from UC Irvine. Upon receiving her undergraduate degree, she experimented in corporate finance at the headquarters of UBS Financial Services in Weehawken, New Jersey. While working there, she often found her thoughts drifting to a vision of a job that involved fascinating conversations about literature. These visions quickly led to reality when she found herself associate teaching at Foothill Country Day School in Claremont, California, and quickly thereafter, she enrolled in UC Irvine’s credential program where she was able to student teach at University High School under the supervision of Jeanne Jelnick, a teacher recognized as one of Orange County’s 2011 Teachers of the Year.
I attribute the successes I have had in the classroom to Ms. Jelnick’s indelible influence on me as a person and as an educator.
As a dedicated educator, Ms. Addiss works tirelessly to meet the challenge of delivering powerful instruction while engaging students through dynamic lessons. She believes that meeting these challenges, which can at times be filled with ups and downs, offers many opportunities for growth as an educator.
While the love of learning and literature propelled her toward education, it is the powerful impact that she hopes to someday make on students that continues to fuel her desire to teach. In compelling students to care about what they are reading, she has shared a borrowed metaphor with them:
Literature can be as simple as looking into a mirror; it can provide an opportunity for introspection, or it can be peering through a window at the unknown, allowing for reflection on the foreign or unknown.
For Irvine Unified School District Teacher of Promise Katherine Addiss, this captures the essence of her experience with literature, and the approach she encourages her students to adopt.