Sometimes, when I am at the movies or at the grocery store, I run into one of my third grade friends from Mendon Center.  The response is usually the same: surprise, shock and lots of shyness! No one ever expects to see me doing normal people things in normal places. Maybe they think I live at school!

    Well . . . I do love coming to school each day, but I don’t live here! I live in Farmington. I am married and have two grown children, Jordan and Zack.  Jordan graduated from Penn State University and works in health care and LOVES to travel! Zack graduated from Clarkson University and works in industrial sales. He enjoys camping and many different sports, especiallly baseball. Mr. Carpin is a physical therapist and an all around great guy. I am very proud of all of them!

    Our family loves to travel and to go boating on Canandaigua Lake.  All four of us are baseball fans, and we enjoy going to Red Wings games and watching the Yankees on television.  Jordan and I like to play games, write, draw, and do crafts, while Mr. Carpin and Zachary would rather play baseball or watch sports and movies.  I am happy to say that we all have a strong sense of adventure—we love to go to new places and trying new things!

    Have you ever been to the Mid-West? That’s where I grew up. I was born just outside of Indianapolis, Indiana.  Much of my family still lives in and around Indianapolis.  I went to high school in the Chicago suburbs and lived there again after I graduated from college.  Indiana and Illinois are both nice places. The ground is very flat compared to here, but the people are just as nice.

    I graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1992 with a degree in business. Go Irish! That is where Mr. Carpin and I became best friends. After college, we lived outside of Chicago and I worked for a company that sold tools and other supplies that factories and businesses need. During the 7 years I was there, I held several positions.  I liked working with customers and managing different departments. My favorite job, however, was hiring and training new managers for the company. 

    Eventually Mr. Carpin and I decided to move to Rochester.  He grew up in Pittsford and we wanted to be closer to his family. I went to work as a manager in the training department for a large company.  My team and I helped people learn new skills so they could do their jobs well. It was exciting, figuring out what they needed to know and finding different ways to help them learn—like solving a puzzle! The only hard part was that I did not really get to see how my “students” learned and grew, because they lived all over the country.

    When my family realized how much I enjoyed the teaching part of my job, they told me, “You really should think about being a teacher.”  (My grandmother was a teacher, my aunts are teachers, many of my cousins are teachers, and my mother-in-law was a teacher—I guess they knew what they were talking about!)  

    I talked with Dr. Soffer, who used to be principal at Allen Creek, and she invited me to visit her school.  “Come spend some time with us,” she said, “and you will know if elementary school is the right place for you.”  Was she ever right!  I felt at home as soon as I met the first group of students. Their teachers were enjoying the same “puzzle solving” I liked about training grown-ups, but with a strong connection to their students.  It was easy to see how the students and teachers were sharing and learning and having fun together. That is what I wanted to do!

    I studied very hard for two years at St. John Fisher College.  I read lots of books, visited lots of classrooms, and took lots of tests. Finally, I was a teacher!  

    I am excited to start my 20th year of teaching third-grade at Mendon Center.  Even though I don’t actually live here, I am very happy to call MCE my home!