Chatfield Schools welcomes three new teachers this year.
Todd Johnson, as Chatfield’s new business teacher, teaches Economics, Business Communication, Career Planning and Introduction to Business. In addition to that, he is a member of the Career Readiness Team that discusses issues surrounding helping students get ready for career or college, depending on their choice.
Todd is a graduate of John Marshall High School, Rochester Community and Technical College and has a Master’s in Management from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota and a Doctorate of Business Administration from Metropolitan State University. For the past 20 years, he has taught and continues to teach in higher education and for the last four years has directed and taught in an educational enrichment cooperative in Rochester that focuses on high school youth.
Dr. Johnson lives in Rochester but attends church in the Chatfield area. It was while in Chatfield during Western Days that he learned that there was a late resignation of a business teacher and later applied and was hired for the position.
He chose to go into the teaching profession because he feels it is a purposeful career. He shares that knowing you are part of impacting someone’s life, even a very small part, is rewarding. He is looking forward to being able to teach in person after teaching mostly online classes for some time. He thinks it will be fun to experience the variety of responsibilities that comes from teaching 7th graders up through 60-year-old graduate students in a given year.
Dr. Johnson is married and has five children that keep him busy coaching them in a variety of sports. He enjoys leadership development, spending time with his church family and keeping up to date with the news.
Corey Dornack is the new 6th grade science, Minnesota History and Action 100 teacher but he is no stranger to Chatfield, as he lives in the district. He wanted to join the school community and provide an excellent education for children in the Chatfield district. This is his 21st year of teaching, having previously taught in the Rochester school system where he taught one year at Willow Creek and then 19 years at the Lincoln K-8 Choice School, where he taught 6th-8th grade science and math.
He is a 1997 graduate of Dover-Eyota High school and graduated from Winona State University in 2001. In addition he has a Master’s in Science Education from WSU. His emphasis in science comes from his enjoyment of being outside and exploring and learning about nature. He chose to be a teacher because he has always enjoyed working with people and helping others improve. His goal is to make learning fun and provide many hands-on learning activities in his classroom.
In his classroom, Mr. Dornack wants his students to develop confidence in their own abilities. He wants them to understand that no matter what life throws at them, they have control of their own attitude and can accomplish whatever they want with a great attitude. He wants children to be loved and learn to love themselves, be confident and willing to make mistakes and then learn from their mistakes.
Corey is married to Kara and has three children in the Chatfield schools: Makenna, 8th grade, Lane, 5th grade and Hadley, 2nd grade. He enjoys coaching youth wrestling, baseball and softball and officiates for the MSHSL in football, baseball and softball. In his remaining spare time, he likes to fish, golf, camp and be outside.
Kristine Groski is the new 1st grade teacher at the Chatfield Elementary School and is a resident of the Chatfield School District. She has always had an interest in teaching younger children, having taken child development classes and worked in childcare for some years. She has worked in retail and the food service industry too, but felt the calling to return to working with children because it is so fulfilling. She is a graduate of Dover-Eyota High School and has a degree in Early Childhood from Winona State University.
Last spring she student taught in the district and this summer she was part of the Camp Invention STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) team. Camp Invention is a weeklong course for kindergarten through 6th grade, where she taught four classes. She also taught summer school.
Besides finding fulfillment in teaching, Kristine is looking forward to helping her students finding out that they can accomplish things and to see their faces when they realize they have succeeded – the light bulb moment.
In her spare time, she enjoys arts and crafts projects, hiking and water sports like paddleboarding and kayaking, although she hasn’t been able to do as much as she used to as she and her husband have an almost two-year-old daughter who keeps them very busy. You might also see her working at Cabin Coffee.
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