Bobbi Kristjanson's Class

Profile of St. Catherine School and teacher:

I have been teaching with Edmonton Catholic for three years (going into my fourth now).  All three years I have been teaching kindergarten.  For the last two years I have been teaching at an Edmonton inner-city school, St. Catherine.  St. Catherine is an elementary-junior high school with a very multi-ethnic population of students.  The majority of families are low-income with low-education.  There are many single-parent families, instances of alcohol and/or drug abuse, and recent immigrants to Canada.

This year our school has the largest Early Childhood Program in the inner city.  We have 48 registered children, 25 in the a.m. class and 23 in the p.m. class.  In the morning class we have 16 girls and 9 boys, and in the afternoon class there are 15 girls and 8 boys.  12 students have little to no English.  3 are recent immigrants to Canada and the rest were born here in Canada.  43 students out of 45 have English as a Second language.  The majority are Vietnamese-speaking (about 85%).