{photo credit: Jessica Wilson, staff photos: Michelle Dorman}
For this week’s Friday Faces, meet our Intermediate team. These fabulous ladies are bringing out the best in our 3rd and 4th graders, and helping to prepare them to become independent learners. We are so grateful for all you do, teachers!
Lisa Ann Dillon
Intermediate Lead Teacher, Intermediate Core Teacher (Track A), Singapore Math Lead
Q: How long have you been at SLOCA?
A: I don't know why this question always confuses me. This academic year begins my ninth year of teaching at SLOCA. Because I took one year off for maternity leave I am actually going on year 10 for having officially been a part of the faculty. Hurray for year 10!
Q: What brought you here? How did you discover our school?
A: Jill Talley was instrumental in introducing me to SLOCA even when Grant and Karena were babies. If I remember correctly, in my interview I said something like – “I know you would not teach Beowulf with first graders, so I have prepared a lesson on King Arthur.” Ha! Thank goodness they hired me anyway.
Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A: Oh – I hope by the time this goes out the Literature Training will already have happened and then everyone will know that I wanted to be an astronaut.
Q: How many pairs of shoes do you own?
A: Should I go count? I did go count. There are 22 pairs. This may surprise you if you've ever looked at my shoes so let me clear that up by saying that 9 of those pairs are flip flops and another 4 are sneakers and several pairs are heels gathering dust in the back of the closet.
Q: What do you like on your pizza?
A: Hm… Having gone gluten free but not being much of a gluten free cook, I don't eat a lot of pizza these days. But when I did, I loved all the fancy pizza toppings – pesto, artichokes, pancetta (sounds so much more refined than pork belly), nettles – but not necessarily all together!
Q: Name a book you read this summer and enjoyed, or have read this year.
A: With Grant I read E. Nesbit's book – Five Children and It and with Lyla I read Heidi. I highly recommend both. I also read a book by Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria called Cervantes' don Quixote. This is an Open Yale Courses book and I drew from it significantly for the Trimester 1 Literature training. For fun I'm reading Murder in the Queen's Wardrobe by Kathy Lynn Emerson. I love to read historical fiction from the time period we are studying. This one involves Queen Elizabeth and the Russians.
Lisa Wallace
Intermediate Core Teacher (Track A & B), Intermediate Science Teacher (Track A & B)
Q: How long have you been at SLOCA?
A: I joined the team in February 2011 as an Intermediate Core Teacher, then taught SLOCA High School Spanish, then back to Intermediate.
Q: What brought you here? How did you discover our school?
A: Geri Smith invited me to a fundraiser event many years ago. I was intrigued and eventually applied to teach at SLOCA. Thanks, Geri!
Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A: I always wanted to be a teacher. My mother and grandmother were both teachers. I used to love grading papers for my mom, and she used to bring me with her to set up her room in the fall.
Q: How many pairs of shoes do you own?
A: Not as many as my husband does.
Q: What do you like on your pizza?
A: Anything but meat.
Q: Name a book you read this summer and enjoyed, or have read this year.
A: Mindset by Carol Dweck and Vanishing Grace by Philip Yancey. And Cat in the Hat about a million times.
Cecilia Nutting
Intermediate Core Teacher (Track B), Friday Foundations Intermediate Teacher
Q: How long have you been at SLOCA?
A: I started teaching at SLOCA in January of 2013.
Q: What brought you here? How did you discover our school?
A: I began tutoring several SLOCA students in math when my husband and I moved back to SLO from the central valley. After a couple of years, I mentioned my interest to one of my student's mom about seeking a teaching position and it was around this time when the Intermediate position opened up. This mom put in a good word for me and here I am!
Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A: First it was a rock star (in kindergarten), then an archeologist (3rd grade), then later a zoo keeper or a veterinarian. When I was in high school I was very interested in going into the medical field and even spent approximately three years volunteering at a hospital and the blood bank. During this time, I was also working through the county of education at an alternative school as a teacher’s aide and quickly realized how much I enjoyed tutoring and teaching the students at this school. When I was a senior in high school, I decided that I wanted to be a teacher.
Q: How many pairs of shoes do you own?
A: I own altogether 30 pairs of shoes (a handful of them are running shoes).
Q: What do you like on your pizza?
A: Fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, jalapenos, onions, daiya cheese, and olives.
Q: Name a book you read this summer and enjoyed, or have read this year.
A: I read the German translation of Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne, Pu der Bär. I also read Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion by Jay Heinrichs. And I read the Mindset book and of course Intermediate’s version of Don Quixote.
Caroline Vaccaro
Intermediate and Kindergarten Art Teacher (Track A & B), Enrichment Teacher (Track B4), California Art, History and Literature Teacher, Academy Class & Club Coordinator, Yearbook Coordinator
Q: How long have you been at SLOCA?
A: I started teaching academy classes in 2009.
Q: What brought you here? How did you discover our school?
A: I knew Kateri Rein and she asked me to teach an art class.
Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A: When I was a little girl I wanted to be a flight attendant so I could travel all over the world. When I was in high school I wanted to be a ambassador.
Q: How many pairs of shoes do you own?
A: I have and wear 2 pairs of running shoes, 2 pairs of good flip flops, 2 pairs of teaching shoes and then I have 20 pairs of shoes that never leave the closet because I never wear them.
Q: What do you like on your pizza?
A: Pizza? I like everything on my pizza! Except olives.
Q: Name a book you read this summer and enjoyed, or have read this year.
A: I read a book called: Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland. It is a historical fiction about the painting by Pierre-August Renoir.
