Kindergarten
At PS 8 since 2008
Ms. Rachel LeMaster started teaching in 2003, after stints in online journalism at USA Today and with a start-up, and fell right in with it. Before joining PS 8 in 2008, Ms. LeMaster taught third grade, music and science at an elementary school in Washington Heights for five years, as well as science in a Saturday and summer program at Horace Mann. She started at PS 8 as a kindergarten science teacher for a year before taking on her own kindergarten classroom.
One wonderful thing about teaching, Ms. Lemaster says, is “how you can show young kids something that adults take for granted and they find it so exciting.” She enthusiastically recounts the time she told her kindergartners something about leaves, and suddenly found herself fending off repeated requests to bring handfuls of leaves into the classroom for observation. She appreciates the community support that PS 8 enjoys – parents willing to come into the classroom to help out, Principal Phillips’ open-door policy with parents and the community. “It makes all the difference,” she says.
Ms. LeMaster was raised in Kentucky and received a liberal arts degree from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. She moved to Washington, DC for an internship after graduating, and made her way to New York City in 2001. She enjoys listening to music, especially folk-country concerts, and exploring the city’s many restaurants. She also loves to travel and tries to go abroad every year.
