Introducing
From left to right: Mark, Karina, Karissa, Kristin, and Megan.
I
Dr. Kristin Bird
HAVE BEEN INVOLVED with children and teaching
them about God since I was very little. My mother had
a Christian daycare/preschool in our home, and we always
had kids around. We lived across the street from a hospital
and would take the children in shifts, so they literally were
always around. My earliest recollections of working with
children are teaching them Bible verses and character stories.
I didn’t always want to be a teacher. I grew up without the
influence of a father, so my grandfather and older brothers
became the male influencers in my life. My grandfather was
always encouraging his grandchildren to do better and be
better than he was. He encouraged me to become a doctor
because by the time I would be through my schooling, he
would need a new “ticker.” As I grew up, I was very inter-
ested in all things medical and could not wait to become a
doctor who would make my grandfather proud.
My interest in medical school, while still strong, began to
fade in college. Yes, I still loved biology and chemistry class
and dissecting any creature I could get my hands on. But
as graduation neared, I became apprehensive and worried
about the next steps. I knew in order to apply to medical
school I needed 500 hours of volunteer medical time, so
I moved back home after graduation to volunteer in the
emergency room at the nearby hospital. I loved the work in
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the emergency room, but I began to realize something else.
I loved working with the children in the daycare/preschool
more. I would stay up late into the night making lesson plans
and planning fun activities to do with the kids. I would look
for exciting ways to teach them Bible verses because, for
many of those kids, that was their only exposure to God and
the Bible. I wanted them to remember what I taught them
long past their time with us.
Through a series of events that could only have been
orchestrated by God, I was accepted into the Master of Arts
in Teaching program at the University of Pittsburgh the
next spring. When I applied for the program, I was told they
had reached their maximum enrollment for the program
that year, but they would be happy to put me on the list for
the following year. However, one week later, I received my
acceptance letter and soon began classes. I completed all
classes, a full school year internship in grades K-2, the state
certification exams, and my thesis all in the next year.
Even though I had been offered a job in the public school
system, I felt a very clear calling to Christian education and
began teaching in a Christian school that next fall. Over the
next few years, I taught multiple grades and music classes. A
summer job in a restaurant in Ohio put me in a place where
I was contacted about teaching for other schools, and a deci-