Students -  Welcome back to campus! I look forward to meeting you all. It's time to get off the summer lounge chairs (meet Oneuli and Denali) and get back to school! This year I am teaching English 7H and Yearbook and I can't wait to see you. 

Parents - Please save Thursday, August 28 for Back to School Night. I look forward to meeting you at that time.

Take care,

Mrs. Angela Halpin

I truly enjoy the art and exploration of the written word. I hold a Bachelor's Degree of Art in English and Comparative Literature from the University of San Diego, and received my teaching credential through USD. I also hold a Master's Degree in Educational Leadership and Administration. I'm a San Diego native and graduated from La Jolla High School where I was the editor-in-chief of the yearbook and really active in the service organization KeyClub. My parents were both teachers, so I always knew I'd wind up in a classroom - I loved everything about school from the start. I started teaching immediately after college and I've taught eleventh and twelfth grade in Chula Vista, seventh and eighth grades in El Cajon, and now have been middle school in Carmel Valley for the past seventeen years.  In my stay-at-home-mom years when the boys were young, I volunteered and taught art for their elementary school, too.  My hobbies include reading, writing, running, gardening, baking, spending time with my huge Greek family, trying new restaurants with friends, and going to Torrey Pines any free moment I have.

Other things about me:
I love to read. I've been in the same book club for over 30 years! It started with four other former San Dieguito employees: Hilary Crain, Martha King, Linda Huston, and MaryBess Holloway. Here's a look at some of the titles we've read.

I love to write. I won an award for this piece about my youngest son, Dillon, when he was just a few years old. I also co-authored a children's book, Water, Weed, and Wait and it was published in 2010.

I love photography, nature, traveling, baking, and exploring new places.  In the last few years we stayed in a cabin in Seward, Alaska for halibut fishing; went on an Alaskan cruise with 14 family members to celebrate my parents' 55th wedding anniversary; went wine tasting in Napa for my 25th wedding anniversary. Last summer we visited Santa Barbara twice, stayed in Wailea, Maui for a week, cruised Alaska to see the glaciers and whales with family, floated down the Truckee River with our eldest son, stay-cationed in Carlsbad for a week for a wedding, and then cruised again through Greece and Turkey. Dillon headed to the Netherlands to play flute, and last fall Nicholas and Jim went to England to watch Manchester United and Chelsea play two soccer games. I also try to visit a handful of "new-to-me" San Diego places each month (this summer I went to many new restaurants, took the trolley for a tour of our Central Library which I'd never visited, and fell in love with a new-to-me yoga class on the cliffs of La Jolla - right near where my wedding photographs were taken).

Professionally, I am currently department chair for English at CVMS. I have sat on the board of the Greater San Diego Council of Teachers of English for the past  fifteen years, and I'm very involved with this amazing network of English teachers; I also served as the  CATE (California Association of Teachers of English) treasurer for years, and I'm always looking for opportunities for professional growth and networking. I am so honored to have been chosen as San Diego's delegate to attend the National Council Teachers of English conference in Boston last fall, too. I love learning.

I've been married to Jim for over 30 years. We love to explore nature and work in our garden. Right now we're growing lemons, limes, oranges, bananas, strawberries, peaches, avocados, lettuces, tomatoes and many herbs. Jim was also a literature major but he's a non-fiction reader. If you want a good Civil War or American history reading, he's got a title for you.
   
We have three sons (27,27, 23)  and they are all very busy, and love music, and everyone surfs. We're an outdoorsy family. We travel to Yosemite just about every year, and in summer we usually travel back to South Kihei, Maui  where we snorkel; hike; run; surf; jump off waterfalls; spot turtles, eels, octopus; and swim every day. We oftentimes spend summers with Jim's family in Maine and New Hampshire - canoeing, fishing, rock climbing, biking, running.  My eldest is a rock-climber/hospitality worker in North Lake Tahoe; my middle is a nursing student; and, my youngest graduated college with a flute performance degree and is now in graduate school in cybersecurity comptuer engineering  --  and all three lifeguarded, following in the footsteps of their dad who was a SD City harbor lifeguard when I met him.

Also living with us are Tumble, Dusty, Oenuli and Denali. It's a house-full :)

Thank you for reading! 

My email is angela..halpin@sduhsd.net.

Donations to my Amazon Wish List for my classrooms are greatly appreciated.