Meet Mme Werness
Welcome! Bienvenue!
The 2021 - 22 school year will be my tenth year teaching second grade and my 22nd year of teaching at Normandale!
My first years at Normandale were spent as a first grade teacher and then I shifted to third grade for three years. Teaching second grade is great and each day brings me such satisfaction to see the students growing in their abilities to understand, speak, read and write in the target language as well as growing in so many other academic areas and in their social/emotional skills.
Please allow me to share a little about myself: I have a B.A. from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and an M.A. in Education from St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota. In addition, I have a certificate in Immersion Education from the University of Minnesota and a certificate in Teaching and Technology through Hamline University. My elementary teaching license is for Preschool through sixth grade.
My teaching experiences span nearly 30 years in the US, the Middle East and France. I have taught all ages, from preschoolers through adults. Besides teaching in the immersion setting, I have a variety of experiences as an ESL teacher and as a French teacher in the traditional world language setting. My first taste of teaching in immersion was in Cairo, Egypt where I taught English to mostly Arabic-speaking children. I thoroughly enjoyed that experience and was thrilled to be given the chance to be an immersion teacher once again at Normandale in 2000.
On a more personal level, I am married and have an adult daughter and three step-children, all young adults living on their own. In my free time, I love to read, play the trumpet, do crafts and I am also active in my church. My husband and I enjoy ballroom dancing and tandem cycling together. During the summer, we love to swim and go boating on Lake Minnetonka. I also enjoy traveling wherever and whenever I have the opportunity. I grew up in the Twin Cities and am a third-generation teacher. My father taught in the Bloomington schools, my mother taught adults with learning disabilities and my grandfather was a French teacher at Blake school. I have Grandpa Paul's legacy to thank for igniting in me a love of the French language.
In thinking about this school year, I am looking forward to meaningful and enjoyable times of learning in second grade with your child, despite the challenges that I know we are continuing to face during this pandemic,. Our work is not complete without your child's enthusiasm and your support as parents. I hope we can collaborate in keeping the home-school communication lines open. I believe that this will help to solidify a strong foundation for your child's learning this year and beyond. Thank you for entrusting your child to the immersion experience and to our teaching team. I appreciate this opportunity to partner with you!
Sincerely,
Madame Werness
https://sites.google.com/a/apps.edina.k12.mn.us/margaret-werness/