Why did you want to become a teacher?

Well, I always wanted to be a teacher. I never wanted to be anything else, even when I was little. I have three younger sisters, and I used to play with them and make them be students, and I would assign them homework and stuff like that. So, I don’t remember ever wanting to be anything except a teacher, but I decided I wanted to be an English teacher when I had Mr. Caruso in 12th grade — he still teaches here. He really inspired me to love English and literature and discussion and taught me how to write, and so he was the one who helped me decide to be an English teacher.

Who is your biggest inspiration?

Well, as a teacher, Mr. Caruso, but if I’m talking about life in general, I would say, my sister, Alisha. She was diagnosed with dyslexia when she was really little, so she couldn’t read until she was in 5th grade — but she works so hard, and she’s like the kindest person I’ve ever met. She’ll go out of her way to do anything for anyone, so she’s probably my biggest inspiration.

If a genie gave you 3 wishes, what would you wish for?

I would wish for enough money to work only half days, because even though I really love teaching, I’d like to be home with my daughter more often than I am. I would wish for — yeah, these are selfish wishes — I would wish for a bigger house, because our house is small and cluttered, and clutter stresses me out. I feel like I’m always stressed out at home because it’s always cluttered and messy. And the third thing I would wish for is for my daughter to grow up happy — that one’s not selfish.

What have you found the most difficult part of teaching to be?

The hardest part is grading essays because I spend a lot of time on them and want them to be done well, and it takes me a lot of time to grade them.  Last year, I had 120 kids, and the grading would take hours and hours and hours.

If you weren’t a teacher, what would you have been instead?

Ok, so my one dream, besides being a teacher, which would never come true because of my talents, is to be on Broadway, but I can’t sing or act or dance. I just love Broadway so much — if I were given other talents, perhaps that’s what I would have pursued.

What is your favorite tv show? Movie?

My favorite tv show is probably The Office. My favorite movie is Back To The Future. Let me tell you a story about that movie. It came out when I was two years old, and my parents had a VCR.  There was only one TV in our house (that was kind of the normal in the 80s) and it was in their room, and they rented Back To The Future. I used to sleep with them in bed, and they fell asleep during it, and my mom woke up to me getting up and rewinding Back To The Future at like 1 am and putting it back on. I’ve loved it since.

Do you feel you give off more of a vegetable or fruit vibe?

I think I’m a fruit, because I’m colorful and sweet.

What type of fruit vibe do you feel you give off the most?

I would say maybe a mango because of the bright colors, and if you look around my room, I have a lot of mango-colored things here. You know how sometimes mango tastes really good, but sometimes it tastes like nail polish remover? Well, that might be the more sarcastic personality that some say I give off.

What is your favorite genre of literature? Book?

My favorite is so hard because I read pretty much everything. Probably what I read the most, though, would be historical fiction or dystopian novels, but I’m really interested in cozy mysteries right now. Last summer, I read a lot of cozy mysteries, which are like mysteries but not scary or twisted or anything like that. I got really into those this summer. But if I had to list two favorite books, one would be Their Eyes Were Watching God, which no one else likes pretty much in the whole world, except for me, but I think it’s like the most beautiful piece of literature ever written. My second favorite would be The Five People You Meet In Heaven. The plot of that is just really interesting, and you’ll be reading it later this year with me.

Does having a child of your own help you deal with high school kids?

I actually think high school kids help me deal better with my child at home. I’m very patient here, I think, and I understand that when the students are having a bad day, something bad might have happened at home or they’re having a problem with their friends or they had to work until 11 o’clock at night and didn’t get to do their homework at home. So, I always think of that with my students, and it’s making me be more understanding towards my daughter, even though she’s not even two yet.

Have you always lived in Pittsburgh?

Yes, I went to NA, starting in kindergarten, and I went to Grove City for college. Then I taught at Ringgold for a year, but then I came back and started working here, so I’ve pretty much been in Ingomar pretty much my whole life.

What is it like to be able to work with your husband?

It’s actually fun; we don’t see each other that much during the day, and we don’t drive together, so it doesn’t feel like we’re together too much, but it’s really nice to be married to someone who cares about teaching. Teaching is an all-encompassing job — it takes over, and I think if I weren’t married to a teacher, I wouldn’t have anyone to talk to about these things. It’s nice.

If you could trade places with any character from literature, who would it be?

It would be Scout from “To Kill A Mockingbird.” I love that book — that’s my third favorite book. She’s just fun. She’s just really spunky, does what she wants, and has adventures, and I love that about her.