Cheryl Overvig began teaching special education at Como Park Elementary in Fall 2016. She has a Developmental Disabilities Special Education License through Bethel University Graduate School, a Master of Education Degree in Curriculum & Instruction: Teaching Through Integrated Arts from Lesley University, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Art with K-12 Art Licensure from Saint Olaf College. At Como, Ms. Overvig works with students identified with developmental and cognitive delays and disabilities in a self-contained classroom. Learning academic, social, and functional skills is all done through song, art, story, technology, and movement in Ms. O's classroom. A passionate team of related service providers collaborates with Ms. O to deliver paraprofessional support, speech/language therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, adaptive physical education, music therapy, social work, and nursing services to their students. In addition, Ms. O's classroom is equipped with a large collection of books, puzzles, Legos, a painting easel, iPads, a sensory table, and other materials for hands-on learning. Outside of the classroom, Ms. O's students can be found swinging and climbing outdoors on the playground, eating in the cafeteria, and socializing with peers from the general education classes. Several times a year, Ms. Overvig's students travel to Belwin Nature Conservancy, visit Como Planetarium, take walking tours around the block, and go sledding when there's snow.

Ms. Overvig grew up in Connecticut where she spent a lot of time ballet dancing after school and camping during the summer. She always wanted to be a teacher. As a little girl, she remembers trying to teach her dolls and stuffed animals how to read; she even had a chalkboard on her bedroom wall. A mother of three--a firmware engineer, a registered nurse, and a student at the University of Vermont, Ms. Overvig lives just south of the river with her husband, her mother-in-law, two cats, and an English setter, Samson. When she is not teaching, Ms. O enjoys building jigsaw puzzles, walking her dog, and playing board games with her family. Prior to becoming a special education teacher, Ms. O proudly served two years with Minnesota Reading Corps as a preschool literacy tutor, taught art at the elementary and middle school levels in Rosemount, West St. Paul, and Mendota Heights, and spent many years designing demonstrative trial exhibits for the litigation department of the law firm, Dorsey & Whitney in Minneapolis.

Building bonds within the classroom and beyond motivates Ms. Overvig’s work with her students and their families. It’s all about relationships first! Reflecting on the very special people that her students are, and on her deep conviction that personal connection is key to learning, Ms. O wrote this poem. It hangs by her classroom door.

The Call to Class

We gather to learn together:
Different people, different lives, different histories
Yet all students in the same classroom.

We gather to reconnect with one another:
Different people, different lives, different histories
Yet all citizens of one school community.

We gather with different joys and sorrows, different strengths and struggles, different hopes and fears.
Different people, different lives, different histories
Yet one learning community with this one day to share.

As we go about this, our school day, let us open ourselves
To the presence of others at work among us,
To the opportunities to serve all around us, and
To the capacity for learning within each one of us.

Come in...