Barbara
is from Scotia, NY and graduated from the State University
College at Oneonta, NY, with a permanent teaching certificate.
In Galway, NY, she taught an all day kindergarten, before
moving to Rochester, where she taught kindergarten in the
West Irondequoit School District.
At
Summerville Nursery School, Barbara began as a parent classroom
assistant and substitute teacher when her two children were
in the school. Then, for about ten years, she began in-home
care while her children were growing up, took care of infants,
preschoolers and some school-age children. Around 1983,
she returned to Summerville Nursery School as a teacher's
aide and substitute teacher. In January 1985, she became
the teacher of the 4 PM class, then taught two years for
a class of three-year-olds. Since then, she teaches the
AM and PM 4-5 year-old classes.
She
belongs to the National Association for the Education of
Young Children, the New York State Association for the Young
Children and the local Rochester Association for the Education
for Young Children, and attends workshops and conferences.
Barbara assisted a past director of SNS in developing and
presenting a workshop on infants and toddlers at local and
state RAEYC and NAEYC conferences. Now, because of her interest
in multicultural learning, Barbara has developed a workshop
on that topic, presenting it at RAEYC and NAEYC conferences.
Since September 1986, Barbara has also enjoyed being with
the one-year olds in her Step One program. In September
2001 Barbara also became the Educational Director for Summerville
Nursery School.
In
the Spring of 2004, Barbara and the School Board brought
a Wolf Trap Artist in Residence to her afternoon class so
all of the teachers could learn to use more movement, drama
and music within their classes. The implementation of this
nationally acclaimed program has already proved to be a
great success in the classrooms.
Barbara
has a strong interest in Asian culture. To learn more about
the Korean culture, she has helped in the classrooms at
Korean Day Camp (Camp Chin-Gu), as well as helped write
the curriculum for the four to six and a-half year olds.
Barbara
and her husband, Joe, retired from Eastman Kodak, have two
adopted children, Joseph and Anne-Marie, who are grown up.
She also has two grandsons, Dustin, who graduated from Summerville
Nursery School, and Jacob, who attended Step One. Barbara
and Joe have recently celebrated the arrival of their new
granddaughter, Carissa, to their family. As a family, they
enjoy traveling, going to the movies and garage sales. In
her spare time, Barbara enjoys reading, photography, learning
sign language, doing crafts, sewing, crocheting and knitting.
She also enjoys going to used book sales with her husband
and Red Wings baseball games.
