Welcome to 2nd grade!

 

I'm very excited to begin my 19th year of teaching with you! I was born and raised in Allentown, Pennsylvania with parents that made family the first priority.  Elementary school was my favorite, but I didn’t always know I wanted to be a teacher. I went to Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) for college. I graduated with a Fashion Merchandising degree and planned to become a clothing buyer.  During my Senior year, my roommates were education majors, doing student teaching. They were planning lessons, making trips to bookstores and I went along with them because I thought what they were doing was exciting. It wasn’t long before I was helping with lesson ideas and secretly wishing I was heading into a classroom to teach.  Being only 2 months away from graduating, it was too late to change majors, so I graduated. I went home, explained things to my parents and they were very understanding. I worked a retail job, waitressed part time, and reapplied to school. I was accepted, and in 2 years, I graduated with my Elementary Education degree. I began my teaching career in Green Pond, South Carolina where I taught Kindergarten and 1st grade.  I loved it, but, after living there for 2 years, and being so far away from our families, my husband Tom and I decided it was time to move closer to home.   We have lived here for almost 16 years and couldn’t be happier. I have my Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction from UMD, College Park and I loved higher ed so much that I wanted to teach there, too.  For the past 6 years, I have been an instructor at Towson USG. I am proud to be a part of the Early Childhood department where I can work closely with future educators.

          My husband, Tom Benco is the Physical Education teacher at Wims and we celebrated our 17th anniversary this past July.   I am a mom to Liliana in 7th grade and Alivia in 5th grade.  They are my proudest achievements. Watching them grow, learn about the world and themselves, and find their true meaning and life’s path has made a profound effect on my life.  There is no way to describe the joy that I receive when a child learns something new, figures out a challenging dilemma, or forms an opinion because of something new that was learned.  It will be my daily mission, as it always has been, to continue to make children feel so loved at school that they can’t wait to come back and learn with me every day.