Just past the chapel, on the far end of one of the third floor hallways, a bright, friendly second grade classroom is visible. Outside the classroom, you’ll find a carefully hand-drawn picture of every second grader taped neatly on the outside of their lockers. Inside the classroom, a group of eager second graders sat on a navy blue rug and listened intently to the daily math lesson presented by their teacher, Mrs. Karen Dierberger. Mrs. Dierberger is no stranger to teaching, but she is a new face here at Providence.
Mrs Dierberger wanted to start teaching ever since she was in second grade. She used to take notes on what her teachers did, and how she would do it differently.When she was old enough, Mrs. Dierberger attended Creighton University in Ohio, which is run by a Jesuit order.
Mrs. Dierberger briefly taught at a school in Brownsville, Texas. After teaching for seven years in the Twin Cities area, Mrs. Dierberger came to Providence.
Mrs. Dierberger transitioned smoothly into the PA community, and she is thankful for the welcoming community at PA. “The staff and the students are a blessing,” says Mrs. Dierberger, “and I am thankful for this school and its mission.”
Mrs. Dierberger is very excited to be taking her students on field trips, as well as helping her students prepare for the sacrament of Holy Communion.
Mrs. Dierberger’s spontaneous and creative methods of teaching bring a new aspect to the second grade class, and her great care of maintaining good reading habits shows greatly from the reading charts on the wall as well as a small bookshelf carefully organized and generously filled to arouse a love of reading in the second graders. She also employs the use of clever methods such as “talk time”, an allotted amount of time where the second graders get to socialize, to help keep her students from getting too antsy during class.
“Mrs. Dierberger is a great teacher, and I am having a lot of fun in her class,” says David Fish, a second grader in Mrs. Dierberger’s class.
One of the best things about Mrs. Dierberger is her incorporation of the second graders’ participation into guest visits. When I came to visit and after the interview was through, a few of the second graders actually had questions that they wanted to ask me. So I got to have a “mock interview” of my own that day as the second graders tried their hand at being journalists and reporters. Mrs. Dierberger is working hard with her class to shape and form the upper school Lions of tomorrow, and we are very happy to have her.
