Cristy Baldwin has joined the Darlington School staff as a Spanish teacher in the middle grades. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from Universidad de Guadalajara in Mexico and a Master of Arts in Education from Regent University. Most recently, she was foreign language department chair and Spanish teacher at Rome Middle School.
A native of Guadalajara, Mexico, she has more than 20 years of experience teaching Spanish and ESL courses to PK-12 students. In 2013, Baldwin was named Rome Middle School Teacher of the Year and runner-up in the Rome City Schools Teacher of the Year competition.
She is also a graduate of the Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Rome program.
“I see myself as a facilitator,” said Baldwin. “I provide the students with the opportunities to learn little chunks of the language, to put them together and then be able to use them. Students in the middle grades are at the perfect age to develop their Spanish.”
The teacher is a huge proponent of practicing Spanish far beyond writing and rote memory, having her students use it aloud in the classroom in a variety of staged real-life scenarios like shopping, visiting the doctor, and ordering a meal.
“I had the experience of learning English as a second language, and I made mistakes,” said Baldwin. “So I reassure my students and tell them they will also make mistakes. Our objective is communication. If you can communicate what you want, you are being successful in class.”
She and her husband, Joseph, are the parents of Darlington students Caleb ('20) and Eli ('21).
“Having grown up in Rome, my husband always said that when we had kids he wanted all of their doors open through a good education,” said the mother of two. “Parents choose this School for their students to be challenged—to see how far above the bar that they can go, always raising that bar a little bit. That's why we chose Darlington.”
In her spare time, Baldwin volunteers with the Rome-Floyd YMCA Arsenal Soccer Club working as a liaison between the program director and Spanish-speaking parents, and coordinates paperwork for the players.
Her hobbies include reading, working out, spending time with her family, learning about new cultures and traveling. Baldwin also enjoys running, and recently won first place in her age group in the Gary Tillman Memorial Clocktower 5K Road Race.
Baldwin lives with her family in Rome, where they attend Trinity United Methodist Church.
