Welcome.
Mrs. Mariana Knifer
Masters in Special Education, Oregon Teaching License with Music and P.E. Endorsements
Mrs. Knifer can remember being involved with music and physical activity since she was a child. Growing up with four older brothers, she was constantly trying to keep up with them. She began playing the piano at age five and continued through junior high. In fifth grade she began playing the trumpet and pursued that instrument all the way through college. She attended Eastern Oregon State University on a four year music scholarship and played the principal trumpet in the Grand Ronde Symphony Ochestra. Mrs. Knifer received a Bachelor of Arts in Music with a minor in Education. She began her teaching career at McMinnville, Oregon, teaching music and physical education. She received her P.E. endorsement during that first year of teaching.
The following year Mrs. Knifer returned to school and earned her Master’s Degree in Special Education. She taught special education in the Tigard-Tualatin School District, then in the Banks School District, before having her first child. Mrs. Knifer came to St. Francis of Assisi School in 2003 to teach music and P.E. Since that time, she has also become the computer instructor.
Mrs. Knifer’s hobbies include being director of her local church’s choir, participation in a Bible study group, Curves, and running. She has achieved a personal goal whichshe set for herself back in high school and that was to run in the Portland Marathon, which she accomplished in 2004 and again in 2005. She was recently the previous director of the Banks ‘Everybody’s Home Town Band’.
This year, Mrs. Knifer is leading a ‘Love and Logic’ Parenting Class with the Banks Resource Center director, Leslee Sipp. Mrs. Knifer feels it is important to live what she teaches as an example of faith to her students.
