Hi everyone, I’m Ms. Kaenjak (pronounced KEN-jack)! I was born and raised in Milpitas, California, and moved to San Diego to pursue my education at the University of California, San Diego, where I earned my B.A. in Education Sciences and continued on to earn my Master of Education and Multiple Subject Teaching Credential. Throughout my journey as an educator, I have had the privilege of learning alongside students and communities at Baker Elementary, Includ(Ed), High Tech Elementary North County, Las Palmas Elementary, Logan Memorial Educational Campus, and Franklin Elementary STEAM Magnet. My own experiences as a multilingual learner shaped my belief that children learn best when they feel deeply known, understood, and valued for everything they bring into the classroom.

I am so excited to be joining the HTeX family this year as a second-grade teacher! At the heart of my teaching is a commitment to building a joyful classroom community that empowers every child to recognize themselves as the capable learner they already are. Through meaningful, project-based learning experiences rooted in creativity, collaboration, inquiry, and the arts, I hope to nurture students’ curiosity while creating opportunities for them to share their thinking, take meaningful risks, and recognize their own strengths. Most importantly, I want our classroom to be a place where children feel a genuine sense of belonging and grow to see themselves as collaborators, strong problem solvers, risk-takers, creators, and changemakers in their communities and beyond. When I’m not in the classroom, you can usually find me spending time with family and friends, practicing yoga, hunting for second-hand treasures, eating tacos with a mound of onions, reading, curating funky outfits, or hanging out with my cat, Ripley. I feel incredibly lucky to be part of the HTeX community and can’t wait for all of the learning, creating, and growing ahead!