The Red School House in the Warwick Hamlet of Pine Island
Have you guessed who our Teacher Spotlight is on this week?
Well, if you guessed… MISS BARB you are correct! Miss Barb joins forces with Miss Patti to teach two of the Senior Wings classes. If you want to know more about this former fashionista who used to sport spiked hair, combat boots and an army jacket, read on!
Miss Barb was a teacher in the Pleasantville School District for about eight years. She decided to forgo parent conferences and midnight grading sessions in order to raise her two sons – Jimmy (13) and Niko(9). When Niko left KCH to attend Kindergarten, Miss Carol made a well-timed call to offer Miss Barb a position and she’s been on board ever since. She enjoys early morning quiet time with a cup of tea and a book (most recently Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult) and rocks out to American Idol. She also likes classy shows like Real Housewives of New York City, Real Housewives of New Jersey and Real Housewives of Orange County. I heard she auditioned for one of the shows, but the producers couldn’t come up with ca$h.
Now, the juicy stuff:
• Miss Barb was the lead singer in a rock band called Wildflower. I “YouTubed” that and came up with some pretty interesting stuff. I might be able to make a positive identification if I freeze some of the frames. Stay tuned…
• She’s really into the beach (favorite place to go on vacation). And volleyball. Did I mention beach volleyball? Yup – that, too. She actually played in college (CW Post) on a scholarship and started/coached/played on a team called Rockland Volleyball Club. This is clearly the lady you want in the classroom: student trips and starts to fall – BOOM – there’s Miss Barb with the diving save; ball over the fence – BOOM- there she is with the vertical save…
• Before leaving for California, where she taught 4th grade for a year, her mother warned her: “Remember Barb, you are going out there to teach, NOT play volleyball!” She still played lots of volleyball and had a fantastic time, even living through two earthquakes. She describes her first earthquake: “My first earthquake I remember waking up instantly. I ran to get my earthquake bag and my dog Bing and ran outside. When I got outside, I looked for my neighbors and not one Californian got up to see if everything was okay. The next morning I questioned my neighbor as to where everyone was and she told me that little earthquakes happened all the time. No big deal. NO BIG DEAL!!!” I was actually wondering how big that earthquake bag was if she had to fit in dog food, an Army jacket, combat boots and a volleyball…
And, finally, the moment you’ve been waiting for — most embarrassing moment. I have a reputation for embellishing, so I am going to use her own words to tell this story:
“When Jimmy was about 3 or 4 we went to a park. He was climbing through tunnels and up ladders and going down slides. He was walking towards an area that had a drop off of about three or four feet. I was sooo scared he was going to fall off the edge that I turned to run and grab him. As I turned I ran straight into the monkey bars. It hurt sooo bad and I nearly knocked myself out. I grabbed Jimmy just before he took a fall and I didn’t realize how hard I hit the monkey bars until Jimmy asked me what was all that red stuff on my face. I put my hand on my forehead and I was bleeding from my head. I run back with Jimmy to my diaper bag to get something to put pressure on the cut to stop it from bleeding. All I had was . . . you guessed it . . . a diaper. One of the moms at the park with me grabbed the diaper and used it as a bandage. Another mom drove me to the emergency with the diaper on my head and I had to proceed to tell the doctor (of course he was a young hot doctor mind you) what happened. I was sooo embarrassed and the hot doctor teased me relentlessly about how this was a first that the mom is getting stitches and the kid was not.”
And that, folks, is why we leave her inside during playground time. Miss Barb, we salute you and your “Live now… dust later!” attitude - keep on rocking!
