Northwood Spotlight: Kirstie Black
5th Grade Teacher
Where are you originally from and what brought you to Mercer Island schools?
I’m originally from Murrieta, CA (halfway between L.A. and San Diego). I moved to Utah for college and spent the last 4 years teaching 3rd grade in Spanish Fork. My husband and I wanted to move somewhere with water and trees, and we figured there was nowhere more beautiful than the Seattle area. We moved here, and that has absolutely been true!
What grade/area do you teach/support and how long have you been in education?
I teach 5th grade, and this is my 5th year teaching. (Growing up, I spent as many days as I could helping out in my mom’s kindergarten classroom.)
Where is your favorite place to vacation?
My favorite place to vacation is Disneyland! I’ve been to some cool places, but I am very nostalgic for the Anaheim theme park. I grew up less than an hour away from Disneyland, so my family would go for most birthdays, momentous events, and--by the time I was a teenager--almost every weekend. (I first went when I was only eleven days old!) I love the lights of all the cute shops on Main Street, the smell of churros and popcorn, and the thrill of ricketing up to the large drop of Splash Mountain. To me, it really is the happiest place on Earth. (I’d like to advocate for a third Disney park to be built in the Seattle area.)
If you had the day to yourself, how would you spend it?
If I had the day to myself, I would visit a restaurant and eat on the patio with my husband and dog. I would like to take my dog to swim at the dog park, before heading to the movies (popcorn is a must) with my husband. I’d spend the rest of the day looking at antique shops, and then I’d wrap up the day with a night of board games with our friends.
Tell us about your immediate family and pets.
I am the youngest of 6 kids, all of whom live in California and Arizona. My parents are still in Murrieta but plan to move to Washington next year. My dad is retired from IT work in a school district, and my mom is finishing her last (and thirty-fourth) year of teaching.
In college, my best friend introduced me to her cousin Stephen, and we’ve been married for a little over two years. He works in data analysis for a startup company called Good Dog, and I’m not sure how he got to be the one that works in a dog-focused industry. (Jealous!) We have a two-year-old English Cream labrador retriever named Zero; he was entirely white when he got him, so we named him after the ghost dog in Nightmare Before Christmas. He loves to cuddle us on the couch, swim at the Luther Burbank Dog Park, and say hello to everyone and everything (especially if there are treats involved).
December 2021
