Welcome
to our class this semester!
This is my 26th year at MSSU! I taught in grades 7-12 for 14 years in Nevada, MO prior to coming here, and I didn't teach the first 4 years after I graduated from MU in Columbia, Mo. My Masters and Specialist degrees are from PSU, and my PhD. is from KU, so in MU/KU or in MSSU/PSU sports rivalries, I always feel like I have a winner! but my heart is always with MU and MSSU!!! (*:*) As you start your introduction page, address a few specific topics, then whatever else you would like to share to help us get to know each other better. I'll model for you here: |
FAMILY: I've been married to my high school sweetheart since 1971.
We had one daughter, Holli, a graduate of our program who certified for middle level social studies and English, secondary English, and had a minor in French. Her Masters degree was as a Media Specialist. She was killed in a car accident on her way to school on August 31, 2005. The MSSU Holli Spencer Cathey Scholarship was started as a memorium to her. She and her daughter were living with us at the time of her accident.
Our granddaughter, now lives with her father and is the light of our lives! She is in the 7th grade now, and is 13 years old. We have Grandparent Visitation with our granddaughter, and we see her every month. Odd months we see her for a weekend, and even months for 6 hours. We also receive Sunday evening phone calls and a few other designated visits throughout the year. We are very fortunate to be able to maintain our relationship with her! Respecting the wishes of my former son-in-law, there are no pictures here of our granddaughter, nor is her name mentioned.
We had one daughter, Holli, a graduate of our program who certified for middle level social studies and English, secondary English, and had a minor in French. Her Masters degree was as a Media Specialist. She was killed in a car accident on her way to school on August 31, 2005. The MSSU Holli Spencer Cathey Scholarship was started as a memorium to her. She and her daughter were living with us at the time of her accident.
Our granddaughter, now lives with her father and is the light of our lives! She is in the 7th grade now, and is 13 years old. We have Grandparent Visitation with our granddaughter, and we see her every month. Odd months we see her for a weekend, and even months for 6 hours. We also receive Sunday evening phone calls and a few other designated visits throughout the year. We are very fortunate to be able to maintain our relationship with her! Respecting the wishes of my former son-in-law, there are no pictures here of our granddaughter, nor is her name mentioned.
My mother lives in Fort Scott, near our home. My brother and sister-in-law, (she is from the country of Colombia), are back in Southern California after 7 years in Aruba, Jamaica and Tangier, Morocco, where he was building resort complexes. He is now responsible for the 900 acre campus of Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.
I have a brother-in-law, in the St. Louis area, who recently remarried after 8 1/2 years as a widow. He has a daughter and 3 sons. Our niece and her husband have a 2 1/2 year-old daughter, who is an absolute delight! Our oldest nephew from that part of the family just got engaged in October and they just moved to Germany for his job, on Jan. 4th. They are 6'5" and 6'4" tall! Our second nephew, in Washington state, and his wife have a 5 year-old daughter together, 2 other daughters and 2 sons from her previous relationships. I don't have a picture of the 7 of them here. Our youngest nephew is in his Senior year at MU, with the intent of starting Med School in the fall of 2016.
I have a sister-in-law and brother-in-law in West Virginia. Our two WVa nephews there are both married and the oldest has a 2 year-old daughter and the younger has a 1 month old son.
I have a brother-in-law, in the St. Louis area, who recently remarried after 8 1/2 years as a widow. He has a daughter and 3 sons. Our niece and her husband have a 2 1/2 year-old daughter, who is an absolute delight! Our oldest nephew from that part of the family just got engaged in October and they just moved to Germany for his job, on Jan. 4th. They are 6'5" and 6'4" tall! Our second nephew, in Washington state, and his wife have a 5 year-old daughter together, 2 other daughters and 2 sons from her previous relationships. I don't have a picture of the 7 of them here. Our youngest nephew is in his Senior year at MU, with the intent of starting Med School in the fall of 2016.
I have a sister-in-law and brother-in-law in West Virginia. Our two WVa nephews there are both married and the oldest has a 2 year-old daughter and the younger has a 1 month old son.
HOBBIES: Travel, reading (just finishing The Book Thief), spending time with friends and family, working with my plants & flowers in the summer, laughter, and sharing all of that with my students to see them open themselves to the world.
SPORTS: I'm not a big "Spectator Sports" fan, but I was on the softball, volleyball, basketball and track teams in high school, and was a cheerleader (small school). I also played community volleyball on the middle school teachers' team (some years ago, now). I played summer golf every Friday night and couples golf most Thursdays until I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1997, and advised against playing golf.
PETS: We've always had pets, everything from a squirrel I found in my grandparents’ combine, to a strawberry blonde Afghan Hound I found in a dog pound. I was always "rescuing" injured or abandoned animals. Mostly, though, it's been cats and dogs. We currently only have one cat, Duncan, who we inherited from our daughter. His buddy, Marseilles, died in 2009.
TRAVEL EXPERIENCES: I've been to 43 states and 37 countries! I've been doing international travel with students since 1983, when I took 7th graders to SIX European countries in 23 days! I've taken middle school, high school and college students, and community adults on trips to Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and domestically, to Washington, D.C., New Orleans, San Antonio & Santa Fe. I LOVE TO TRAVEL! And I love to share travel with others! This past summer, I took a 16 day trip to Italy and Germany with 6 of our students and 3 of our graduates (now area teachers)!!!
Check out two videos participants from this past summer’s trip posted on YouTube. The first two pictures below are hyper-linked. Where did we actually go on the RVMF 2013 trip? ROME, Positano, Sorrento. Pompeii, Santa Maria degli Angeli, Assissi, FLORENCE, Pisa , San Gimignano (Tenuto Torciano), Siena, Padova, VENICE, Murano, Burano, MUNICH, Dachau, Linderhof Castle, Oberammergau, Neuschwanstein Castle. Which is why we said RVMF stands for, Really, Very Much Fun! The picture at the top of this site is taken from the location in the top center picture, here. It is the view of Florence and the Ponte Vecchio over the Arno River from Piazza Michelangelo.
Next time, join us! Check our bulletin board in the upstairs hallway!
The pictures on the right here are from 2 DC trips. WISE sponsors the Comparative Education: Washington, DC Experience trip every spring! I love traveling with students! (*;*)
SPORTS: I'm not a big "Spectator Sports" fan, but I was on the softball, volleyball, basketball and track teams in high school, and was a cheerleader (small school). I also played community volleyball on the middle school teachers' team (some years ago, now). I played summer golf every Friday night and couples golf most Thursdays until I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1997, and advised against playing golf.
PETS: We've always had pets, everything from a squirrel I found in my grandparents’ combine, to a strawberry blonde Afghan Hound I found in a dog pound. I was always "rescuing" injured or abandoned animals. Mostly, though, it's been cats and dogs. We currently only have one cat, Duncan, who we inherited from our daughter. His buddy, Marseilles, died in 2009.
TRAVEL EXPERIENCES: I've been to 43 states and 37 countries! I've been doing international travel with students since 1983, when I took 7th graders to SIX European countries in 23 days! I've taken middle school, high school and college students, and community adults on trips to Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and domestically, to Washington, D.C., New Orleans, San Antonio & Santa Fe. I LOVE TO TRAVEL! And I love to share travel with others! This past summer, I took a 16 day trip to Italy and Germany with 6 of our students and 3 of our graduates (now area teachers)!!!
Check out two videos participants from this past summer’s trip posted on YouTube. The first two pictures below are hyper-linked. Where did we actually go on the RVMF 2013 trip? ROME, Positano, Sorrento. Pompeii, Santa Maria degli Angeli, Assissi, FLORENCE, Pisa , San Gimignano (Tenuto Torciano), Siena, Padova, VENICE, Murano, Burano, MUNICH, Dachau, Linderhof Castle, Oberammergau, Neuschwanstein Castle. Which is why we said RVMF stands for, Really, Very Much Fun! The picture at the top of this site is taken from the location in the top center picture, here. It is the view of Florence and the Ponte Vecchio over the Arno River from Piazza Michelangelo.
Next time, join us! Check our bulletin board in the upstairs hallway!
The pictures on the right here are from 2 DC trips. WISE sponsors the Comparative Education: Washington, DC Experience trip every spring! I love traveling with students! (*;*)
My first day of teaching in August 1976.
TEACHING CERTIFICATION AREA & WHY?: Social Studies grades 7-12. For me, my curiosity about different places and time periods, combined with my love of reading both fiction and non-fiction, made history an obvious choice. Where else can you spend all day telling kids great stories about all there is to see and do out there in the world!
YOU MIGHT NOT GUESS THAT: I've been the top of a 6 person water skiing pyramid, used the ski jump, could ski on one ski, snow skied, snowmobiled, 4-wheeled, gone hang gliding in Kitty Hawk, bungee jumped and ridden the luge in New Zealand, been snorkeling in Mexico, Aruba and off the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, tried to scuba off the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, but had a head cold, so couldn’t do it, had my bedroom both vandalized and ransacked by an intruder while I was sleeping, was proposed to by a prince WHEN I WAS JUST 14! (BTW Those last two were unrelated.) :-) and was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1997 and told I MIGHT still be able to walk in 10 years So far, so good! :-)
MISC.: I was our daughter's assistant Girl Scout troop leader, always her VBS teacher, went to Church Camp with the kids and slept on the dorm bunks with them, and when she was in high school, I drove one of the school's 15 passenger vans with a group of the "speech & debaters" on a few Friday/Saturday trips each year, and loved helping as a judge at the local Speech & Debate tournament! I recently finished a two year turn teaching Church School for the 4 & 5 year-olds in our church. Sooo, I've worked with all ages of children in a "teaching" setting of one type or another. I think that should be about enough from me. Probably more than you wanted to know.
TEACHING CERTIFICATION AREA & WHY?: Social Studies grades 7-12. For me, my curiosity about different places and time periods, combined with my love of reading both fiction and non-fiction, made history an obvious choice. Where else can you spend all day telling kids great stories about all there is to see and do out there in the world!
YOU MIGHT NOT GUESS THAT: I've been the top of a 6 person water skiing pyramid, used the ski jump, could ski on one ski, snow skied, snowmobiled, 4-wheeled, gone hang gliding in Kitty Hawk, bungee jumped and ridden the luge in New Zealand, been snorkeling in Mexico, Aruba and off the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, tried to scuba off the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, but had a head cold, so couldn’t do it, had my bedroom both vandalized and ransacked by an intruder while I was sleeping, was proposed to by a prince WHEN I WAS JUST 14! (BTW Those last two were unrelated.) :-) and was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1997 and told I MIGHT still be able to walk in 10 years So far, so good! :-)
MISC.: I was our daughter's assistant Girl Scout troop leader, always her VBS teacher, went to Church Camp with the kids and slept on the dorm bunks with them, and when she was in high school, I drove one of the school's 15 passenger vans with a group of the "speech & debaters" on a few Friday/Saturday trips each year, and loved helping as a judge at the local Speech & Debate tournament! I recently finished a two year turn teaching Church School for the 4 & 5 year-olds in our church. Sooo, I've worked with all ages of children in a "teaching" setting of one type or another. I think that should be about enough from me. Probably more than you wanted to know.