Hi! My name is Amanda Zayas and this is my third year teaching Third Grade! 

I graduated from Fordham University in the Bronx, NY with a degree in English and a minor in Film. I completed my Texas teaching certification in May 2019. Before joining Howard Norman, I spent 9 years teaching in preschools in New York and then in Texas. I student taught for my certification at HNES with first grade so when a position opened in third grade, I jumped at the chance to join this amazing district!

I'm a born & raised New Yorker and despite living here for almost 6 years now, I still feel like a newcomer! I lived in Austin for the majority of my time here and in the summer of 2020, I moved to Georgetown with my boyfriend and dog. Georgetown reminds me a lot of the old historic towns I grew up in in New York so it really feels like home!

A little bit more about me...

-I'm a HUGE bookworm and love to read or talk about books at any chance I get. I typically read about 2-3 at a time and set reading challenges for myself every year. I read a certain number of books from New Years Day to the following New Years' Eve. In 2020 I surpassed my goal of 65 books and read 75. This year I'm setting my goal at 70 in hopes to hit 75-80! 📚❤️

-I love to write and I'm working towards my dream of having a book published. 📖✍️

-I have an 11 yr old pitbull named Bodhi whom I adopted at 10 weeks old. He's a true four-legged soulmate and a great road dog for long road trips when we drive back to the Northeast every summer! 🐾

-My closest girlfriends I have known since Kindergarten and even with the distance, we still talk every day like nothing has changed. 💗

-My favorite place in the world is Charlestown, Rhode Island, where my family has a summer home and where we have vacationed every summer since 1990. 🌊

-My family is originally from NY but once we all graduated college, we started moving around the US. I stayed in NY while my sister moved to NJ, my parents moved to St Louis and my brother moved to New Orleans. Once my parents moved to Texas (My dad works for UT), we all trickled down here and now all live within 30 minutes of each other. 💜