Mrs. Kim Salz is an English teacher at Fossil Ridge High School. She also organizes the class for yearbook. Growing up, Salz never thought she would be a teacher. She would teach dance, volunteer with classes for kids with special needs, and do choreography for pageants, groups, and organizations. Salz was a part of a lot of teaching, like positions, and loved it. She went to college to get her degree in Speech Communications and realized she did not like what was out there. Salz then went back and got her teaching license; teaching was always something she liked to do but she did not acknowledge it until she was older.

Mrs. Salz grew up in Alaska with her mom, dad, and two brothers. When it came to the holidays, Salz did not have aunts, uncles, cousins, or grandparents to celebrate with. Those moments she had with her family are some of her favorite memories from her childhood because it made them closer. Salz did not realize that until she moved to Colorado and started having lots of people around her, which she loves but looking back, it makes her cherish those times with her family.

Growing up, Salz was very involved—she was a cheerleader and in yearbook, Student Council and National Honors Society. Even though Salz was very involved she still had time for fun and friends. In high school, her favorite memories were the ones she shared with her friends. When it came to college her favorite memories were from her cheer days. Salz is a huge football fan, and being a cheerleader, you get the best seats in the house. Her first college experience was a big game: she was cheering at the University of Colorado vs. Colorado State University game at Mile High stadium. During the summers of her college life, Salz would go back to Alaska and work there. She was a waitress in a dining cart on a train; Salz would ride the train for 16 hours. She would wait tables on the way there, stay the night, wait tables back, and enjoy two days off afterwards. It was a fun experience because she was in the middle of the wilderness in Alaska, seeing all types of wildlife, and she made $9000 in two months, which was an awesome college job for her.

When teaching, Salz can be intimidating at times, part of it coming from being an AP English teacher and being an introvert. She is not super outgoing and friendly at first because she is shy and does not like to talk to people if she does not know them. A small piece of that goes into her classroom. However, in the same breath, as soon as her students get to know her they would not say that about her. Her biggest goal as a teacher is to just ultimately help her students become readers and writers, and help them understand that those things matter in the world. Her bigger goal is to help her students be good humans—to be kind and treat one another with respect, and learn how to get along with other people. Salz’s biggest pet peeve is when people are disrespectful or not kind to each other,which is why she helps her students to be better humans. It is a simple, easy thing to do.

In college, Salz had a professor that was really fun and stuck out to her for a couple of reasons. He really took the time to get to know them, which is really unique in a college class. It was a smaller class, which was nice, but he was the first one to really challenge her and ask why she thinks the way she does. It really pushed Salz to think of who she was, why she thinks that way, and why it is important to her.

Salz’s favorite thing about teaching is the students. Everyone is so different and you can learn things from them. Every year is different, every period is different, so the students for sure are her favorite. Salz started teaching Yearbook because she loves to see her students outside of an English class. She believes that classes like those are when high school comes to life, when you actually get to know people, so she loves building relationships. She used to do Student Council and she loved those kind of relationships. Salz explained, “[In] coaching, you have a different relationship with your coach then you do with a teacher, and I love that.  I love those relationships and they are what yearbook grants you. You get to have a different relationship with your students, it’s closer, it’s fun, and it just gets you involved in the school and building, which is why it’s my favorite class to teach.”

Salz coached cheer at Rocky Mountain High School for three years and then she coached at an all-star gym for four years. She then coached here at Fossil for five years. Her husband is a head coach here for basketball, so when basketball season came around, her life was crazy. She stopped coaching when she had her second child, just because it was super hard to be a mom, a teacher, a coach, and a coach’s wife all at the same time. Salz met her husband through a friend; she actually met him through her boyfriend at the time. They were good friends, but then they broke up, and two years later she started dating her husband. Her husband is the person she is most close with in her family; he knows it all and hears it all. Her favorite thing about her family is how they make her laugh. Salz’s husband is funny and always makes her laugh, and her kids crack her up. Her favorite thing is how they actually enjoy each other and have fun together. In her free time, Salz loves to hang out with her family and find things they all have interest in. Oftentimes her neighborhood is filled with kids, which is really fun. Her neighbors are some of her closest friends as well, so it is super fun when they all have nights off and they just hang outside. The kids are going crazy in the streets and the adults are just hanging out talking.  

Salz has a pet turtle named Russell. They used to have a dog and two cats and then her son had Asthma, so when he was born he kept having reactions. They took him to the doctor and he had to have a Nebulizer, but they could not figure out what was going on with him. They finally got him allergy tested and he was severely allergic to dogs and cats. They triggered his asthma so it was the worst-case scenario for him. They got rid of their cats, but kept their dog, since he was really old and he died a few years later. Her son, Kaden, loved turtles since he was really little. Salz does not know why, but he was obsessed with turtles. When they lost their dog, Salz and her husband thought this would be a good pet—no allergies. Santa later brought him a turtle; he loves the Seahawks so he named him Russell after Russell Wilson. Salz’s son is a huge softie, like a textbook mama’s boy, which she loves because her daughter is super independent.  When he went to kindergarten he was super sad and always wanted to be super close to her. There is a book called The Kissing Hand and the mom racoon kissed the little racoon;s hand when he went off to kindergarten. If he was nervous or sad during the day, she just said, “My kiss is in your hand so you can remember me that way.” When Salz’s son got on the bus, they started drawing hearts on each other’s wrists, and when he was nervous or sad during the day he would see the heart on his wrist. She would see his heart on her’s and they would remember each other. A couple years ago, she had him draw a heart on her wrist and it was tattooed on her so she would always remember.