Our Principal

Mrs. Lunde can be found walking laps with students on the playground, joining a class for a lesson like observing pollinators in the garden, unpacking a journal entry from the 1700s, or using toothpicks to show her thinking in a math problem, or brainstorming with the UELF team about the next opportunity at University Elementary. Most likely she will be smiling and finding a way to connect with the UELF Community.

 Her career began in a 3rd grade class at Olive Elementary School in Novato Unified School District. While at Olive she got the opportunity to teach 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. During those years she developed her deep understanding for the urgency for students to own their learning by having immersive learning experiences through science and history social science while gaining the skills in the academic core content areas of reading, writing, and mathematics. Her classroom was designed with entry points for all students, student agency to process and own the learning, and a strong classroom community of believing in each other and having a safe environment to take risks. Iteration, reflection is how one goes deep in her learning.

 As she grew as a teacher leader, she began wondering how to build her capacity to reach more students. In her leadership journey, she has led teachers and administrators in professional learning in arts integration, science with an emphasis on the Next Generation Science Standards, history-social science, and environmental science with an emphasis on climate literacy. She also worked with new teachers and veteran teachers in the Induction Program, which is a program focused on building the capacity of new teachers through growth in the teaching standards in a mentoring partnership. Christina’s work targets how educator actions create the environment to impact student learning. If we plan learning to be relevant and accessible for students from the onset, then students will engage and drive their learning. She believes in educators and seeks for all educators to believe in the capacity of all their students.

 Mrs. Lunde is thrilled to be added to the UELF Team. She seeks to build on the momentum of expeditionary learning through project based learning pedagogy while integrating the STEAM content. She is committed to leading University Elementary School toward the goal of becoming an exemplary 21st Century Project Based Learning school.

 Christina lives in Novato with her husband, Erik, her son. Raymond, and her dog, Ginger. She can be found hiking Burdell, toodling around on her red bike, her nose deep in a book, or escaping for the weekend to sleep under the stars. If you’re lucky, you may hear her strumming her ukulele.