Kelly Bornmann serves as Country Day’s 6th Grade Science teacher,
6th Grade Human Sexuality Educator, and Lower School Science
Coordinator for grades PreK-1. She is thrilled to have the
opportunity to work in both divisions helping students explore
and understand the world around them.
Over the course of her career, Kelly has had the pleasure of
teaching science at almost grade level, teaching 6th grade
history, teaching Music Together, running her own school, being
head of the Princeton Lab School in Princeton, NJ, working for
the Nature Conservancy, and the best job of all, raising her two
children. Prior to joining the faculty at Country Day, Kelly most
recently served as the Lower School Science Coordinator for the
Collegiate School for Boys in New York City. There she served as
the science teacher for grades K, 2, 3, and 4, and oversaw
curriculum development, teacher training, and special events such
as the Invention Convention and Family Science. In addition, she
worked closely with the head of the science department planning
the K-12 science curriculum and developing
interdisciplinary/interdivisional units of study.
Kelly believes that to be a good teacher, you must always be
a student. She is passionate about developing her own craft
and supporting others in doing the same. To foster her own
learning, she has been the recipient of many grants that have
allowed her to collaborate with educators and science
professionals around the globe which has helped her deepen her
understanding of the art of teaching and keep her science skills
sharp by spending time in the field. Kelly also belongs to
several state, national and international teaching organizations,
and regularly attends and presents on topics such as
early-childhood music education, STEM education, and technology
in the classroom. In addition to her job at Country Day, she
serves as a Lower School human sexuality consultant for Dr.
Debbie Roffman and the Park School in Baltimore, MD; an
educational manuscript reviewer for the International Society for
Technology Educators; and as a beta-tester and educational
consultant for organizations such as The Lawrence Hall of
Science, Google, Nearpod, and BioDive.
Kelly credits her love of science and nature to growing up in the
Pine Barrens of NJ, her parent’s patience with with
her never-ending questions, and two amazing science teachers
– Mr. Albert Morrison (8th grade science) and Mr. Stanley
Stankewicz (Bio and AP Bio) – who opened up the world of
science beyond the woods and never questioned a girls’
passion for science. Convinced she would be a marine
ecologist, Kelly graduated with honors from Douglas College,
Rutgers University with a degree in Biological Sciences. She
spent much of her college career working in the field at the
Rutgers Marine Field station, volunteering for the NY Aquarium in
Coney Island, acting as a naturalist for the NJ Marine Science
Consortium. While she adored the field work, the many
solitary hours of crunching and analyzing data were not for her.
Out of college, she took a job with the Nature Conservancy
in New York City as an administrative assistant where she
had the opportunity to help develop the local educational
outreach program. The interactions with the students were the
best part of her job and she began to see education as the career
for her. The opportunity to teach high school chemistry and
general science presented itself the next year and the rest
is history – Kelly has not left the classroom since.
Kelly received her NJ teaching credentials in Biological
Science, General Science, and Elementary Education through the NJ
Alternate Route Program at The College of New Jersey; her Level
1, 2 and Associate Teacher Trainer Certifications from the Center
for Music and Young Children in Princeton, NJ; Mindful Educator
Training from the Mindful Schools in San Francisco;
and most recently her Biological Science Single and
Elementary Multi-Subject Teaching Credentials from the State of
California. She owes a debt of profound gratitude to
the three women who helped shape her into the teacher she is
today: Ms. Ruth Drake, Dr. Sami Kahn, and Dr. Lili
Levinowitz.
Kelly believes that ’the cure for anything is salt water -
sweat, tears, or the sea’ (Isak Dinesen), so outside the
classroom she loves spending time with her family, on her bike,
doing yoga, traveling, and figuring out ways to spend more
time near the ocean!