About Mrs. Bruce

Fall of 2025 will be my 27th year as a teacher, and my 25th year at Canyon Vista. I really love being a teacher, and I'm very lucky to be part of the Canyon Vista family. 13 years ago, I switched from teaching 6th grade World Cultures to teaching Special Education. I have done inclusion, applied math, and now Social Skills. I have enjoyed the change and the ability to do something new.

I was born and raised in Buffalo, New York until I was 12. Then, I moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth area with my mom and step-dad. I graduated from Texas A&M in 1994 with a double major of Political Science and History and a minor in English. It took my a few years in the business world to really decide that I wanted to be a teacher. 

I met my husband at Texas A&M, and we have now been married 29 years. We have a 24 year old daughter who graduated from the University of Missouri with a journalism degree and a masters in Copy Editing. She is currently working for the university at the paper and teaching a class. My mom and step-dad still live in the Dallas area, but most of the rest of my family, including my dad and step-mom, live in Buffalo.

When I'm not at school, my family and I live a pretty calm life. My husband does a lot of running, mostly half-marathons, so my daughter and I occasionally traveled with him to his races. I also love to read. I read mainly mysteries and classics. I enjoy puzzles, especially crossword and jigsaw puzzles. In our family, we have a cat named Percy, and a tortoise named Tito. 

Other things I love are Star Wars (like, I really, really, love), superheroes, true crime, escape games, ghosts and hauntings, and pandas. I have been collecting pandas since I was 8, and I currently have over 100 different panda items. I have since stopped counting. Some items I have are stuffed animals and figurines (lots of both of those), a water globe, toothbrush, necklace, stamp, and a panda poop statue. My grandmother also made a panda bride and groom for my wedding day. I have forced my family to travel all over to see pandas. We have been to the San Diego, Atlanta, Memphis, Washington DC, and Toronto zoos, all in order to see pandas. In fact, I saw the panda twins at the Toronto Zoo a few summers ago. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done. I know a lot about pandas, so feel free to ask me all about them.