In their nomination application, the family wrote, “Teaching reading to students with dyslexia is especially challenging, but doing so with creativity, humor, patience, & enthusiasm warrants special recognition. Chelsea School serves kids with learning differences and most have language-based learning challenges like dyslexia that frustrate them and make them feel stupid. Karen know these challenges for kids and uses evidence-based methods to help them read, and more importantly, believe that they can learn – the foundation for success in school.”

“If you listen to students who have been instructed by Karen, if fills your heart with joy and hope for kids who have felt hopeless in school. Its like a new lease on life for them. Student have the confidence they need to succeed and interact with their peers with that same confidence,” continued the family.

“What especially delights me about Karen is that she rejoices with each victory her students experience and the pride they gain with those victories. Karen leads a small team of reading teachers at Chelsea School with a firm grasp of all the techniques and approaches that make Chelsea students successful and go onto college. I know this because my son had her for a reading teacher and was 4-5 years below his grade level in reading. However, with Karen’s help and encouragement, our son improved his reading to be on par with his peers and he is about to finish college. There simply is no way for a parent, or a student for that matter, to thank a teacher enough for such a life changing gift. And, there are countless students at Chelsea who have benefitted from Karen’s instructions and who would sing her praises. She deserves our every thanks & public recognition of her amazing contributions as a reading teacher.”

Chelsea School’s faculty and administration, and our entire school community, echo these sentiments. Karen has worked tirelessly to improve the lives of our students by giving them the tools to be lifelong, independent readers. She is an inspiration for us all, and we are so grateful to have her as a Chelsea Knight! We love you Ms. Gallo!