Tell us why you became a teacher

My sister was a special education teacher in the late 1970’s early 1980’s. Preschools were just starting. Id go with her to work sometimes and I loved interacting with her students. Years later i worked at the Pines hotel in the catskills as a mother’s helper. A young family had a toddler that had a trach. None of my friends wanted to work with him. I worked with him for 3 summers. He taught me sign language and thats when my love for speech therapy began.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

There are so many but one event in particular stands out. I had a late teen young man on my caseload who was non verbal and used a dynamic display communication device (an ipad with a communication app). We worked together so diligently to get him to express himself and he started to use his device daily. Apple came to our school and video taped a session to be posted on the Apple website. I was so proud of him!He was nervous and kept saying lunch . The Apple staff bought him McDonalds.

What would you do with the $25,000?

I would take my students out to lunch and a movie. As a single mom, id invest some money then make some repairs in my house.