EXCELLENT EDUCATOR: Charleroi teacher takes alternate path, promotes critical thinking
Thalia Juarez | Herald-Standard
Kim Palonder, physics teacher at Charleroi Area High School, is the school district’s selection for the Herald-Standard Excellent Educator for March.
Thalia Juarez | Herald-Standard
Kim Palonder, physics teacher at Charelroi Area High School, interacts with her students, Samantha Callen, Evan Picinotti and Eliza Richardson, as they participate in an activity as part of a lesson on momentum.
Charelroi Area High School physics teacher Kim Palonder explains a classroom activity to her students as part of a lesson on momentum.
Tawni Feeney (left) and Ashley Eisengart, seniors at Charleroi Area High School, participate in an activity as part of a lesson on momentum in Kim Palonder’s physics class.
Editor’s note: The following is part of a monthly series highlighting educators from the Herald-Standard coverage area who have been chosen by officials in their school districts based on their work and dedication to the area of education.
Charleroi Area High School physics teacher Kim Palonder didn’t always teach physics and she wasn’t always a teacher.
“In physics there’s more than one way to get there,” Palonder said. “If you don’t know one way, then think about another way, think of an alternate path to get there. I’m not going to tell you. You have to get there yourself.”
The words she spoke about her subject and teaching philosophy are representative of the way Palonder ended up at Charleroi seven years ago.
Her alternative path included a string of jobs that took her to multiple states before returning to her roots in the Mon Valley to teach a complex subject to teenage students.
For her commitment to education and enriching the lives of students, Palonder was chosen by officials in Charleroi as the district’s Herald-Standard Excellent Educator for March 2017.
Using experience from past professions, Palonder is able to bring practical, real-life application to the concepts she is teaching.
“I was never this type of learner and I’m not this type of teacher to just say, ‘You have to know this because it’s in the book,'” said Palonder. “And when I teach a concept, I try to find some practical application so that it makes more sense and they can relate to it and it makes the science so much easier for them.”
When Palonder graduated from Saint Vincent College with a math degree, teaching wasn’t even on her radar.
She performed project management and software training with a Pittsburgh consulting company. She worked at Kodak in New York. She helped build a prison in Ohio.
It was during these jobs that she got her first taste of teaching, but the students weren’t in high school. They were project managers and engineers that she showed how to use software.
But the seed was planted, and at the urging of a colleague who admired Palonder’s patience, she made a career change.
She moved back to Pennsylvania, enrolled in a teaching certification program and became dual certified to teach math and physics.
She taught math at Pine-Richland School District in Allegheny County for 11 years before landing the job at Charleroi, where she now teaches AP, honors and academic physics courses, as well as physical science.
Palonder also leads the district’s summer STEM programs, having brought Camp Invention, a national week-long summer day camp, to elementary school students two years ago to introduce them to STEM concepts and problem solving.
As she has done throughout her career, Palonder continues to adapt to changes she sees each year in the classroom to help students learn material and develop critical thinking skills.
“I’m always changing things because the kids always change,” she said. “What works one year is not going to work another year, and my audience is always different, so every year I’m updating and changing things.”
For Palonder, it is important for students to attain the ability to work through problems and come to conclusions on their own. She described their “aha” moments in the classroom as her favorite part of the job.
“When they ask a question, I don’t like to lead them. I’m not giving them answers. I’m showing them how to get there. I think that’s helping them use their brain themselves and come up with the idea themselves.
“I tell them, ‘When you were babies you didn’t start to run right away. You crawled and that was difficult. You walked and that was difficult. And you kept trying.'”