Adviser’s Note: Mrs. Katie Bialk recently received a Golden Apple nomination and graciously took questions from the Journalism I class. Two students’ stories are included here.
“It’s nice to be recognized, but I don’t do it for the attention,” Mrs. Katie Bialk said. This is her third time being nominated for the Golden Apple Award.
Bialk is a Learning Resource Consultant at Notre Dame. She works with students who need extra help in academics.
“I have taught algebra A and B, pre-algebra, and geometry at Notre Dame,” said Bialk.
Bialk started in the nursing field wanting to go into pediatrics, but she switched to education soon after.
“I hated nursing. It was too emotional,” Bialk said. She explained seeing kids with cancer was devastating, and she wanted to help kids in other ways.
Bialk taught in Milwaukee public schools before coming to Notre Dame. She has noticed that public schools are much more limited in helping students.
“I could not spend enough time with students who needed help,” Bialk said. Students with disabilities would often not get the support they needed because other students needed more support than them.
Bialk explained at Notre Dame she can help students as much as they need and create individualized education plans for each student she teaches.
In ten years Bialk hopes to retire early and spend more time at her cabin. –Ryah Wasilkoff
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“The joy of my job doesn’t happen so much in the during, but in the after,” said Mrs. Katie Bialk, the learning resource consultant at Notre Dame Academy.
Bialk, a special education instructor, enjoys being able to help students who need additional educational support outside of the classroom. Her efforts recently led to a third Golden Apple nomination.
Bialk didn’t always know what she wanted to do, but after volunteering at Syble Hopp, “it was a no-brainer that I wanted to help these kids.”
After teaching in Hawaii for two years to be with her husband who was in the Marines, she taught four years in Milwaukee before coming back home to Green Bay, where she had graduated from West High School.
When she came to NDA, the special education program initiated by Mr. Cassidy McGowan was in its infancy.
Here the Golden Apple nominee works hard to ensure that every student who needs additional educational support has access to it, no matter the severity of their learning disability.
“Because NDA is a Catholic school in contrast to a public school, students don’t need to have a certain level of disability for them to have access to the learning program,” she explained.
When it comes to teaching, Bialk said, “The best part is hearing you made a difference after students graduated and grew older.”
–Andreas Schweiner
