Meet Ms. Heckel...

Hi Verona parents and students!  My name is Amy Heckel, and I am so excited to be your science and anthropology teacher this year! This school year will be my twenty-third year teaching, and twenty-first year teaching at HB Whitehorne!  Having grown up in Wisconsin, I am so thankful for the relationships I've built with my students, their families, and my colleagues over the years, and I look forward to getting to know you all this year as well!  Feel free to reach out at any time, I'm happy to answer your questions or just chat!

I currently live in Verona with my silly and super smart Abyssinian cat, Ruby, so please say hi if you see me around town!  As I mentioned, I grew up in a town in Wisconsin that is very similar to Verona.  I do own two cheese head hats, and am a huge Green Bay Packers fan.  In fact, I'm a Packers team owner...yes, you heard me correctly, your eighth grade science teacher is also an NFL team owner! I attended college at the University of Notre Dame, where I received my BA in Anthropology.  I moved to New Jersey after college to attend Seton Hall University, where I received my Master of Education degree.  I also have a certificate in eLearning and Online Instruction from the University of California - San Diego.  I have a passion for bringing science to life for my students and helping them to see that science is really all around us!  Anthropology is a second passion of mine, and I hope to help my students gain a better understanding and appreciation for other cultures through this elective course.  I was honored to have been selected the VFEE Inspiring Excellence award winner for HBW in 2019.

I love to challenge myself to learn new skills/hobbies, try new food, and travel to new places!  I have traveled to six continents, most recently to Europe (Italy) and Africa (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, and Botswana) in 2022 and  Europe (Spain), South America (Ecuador) and Europe/Asia (Turkey) in 2023.  In addition to my personal travel, I have enjoyed taking my former students, when they are/were in high school, to Europe as well as Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and Ecuador, including the Galapagos Islands.  In 2024, I took Verona students to Europe on a custom tour of the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy! In 2025, I will be taking students to Croatia over spring break and Japan in the summer! (Where do you dream of traveling to?  Let me know - I'll see what I can do to make it happen!) I hope that through travel, my students will gain a better appreciation of other cultures and also learn more about themselves and grow as individuals. When I was in high school, I was an exchange student in Germany, and I hope to provide my former students with a similar, life changing experience!

In addition to travel, I enjoy knitting and crocheting, baking, reading, shopping, playing soccer, yoga, playing fantasy football, riding my Peloton, and cheering on the Packers and Notre Dame! In the past, I volunteered with the high school youth group at Our Lady of the Lakes in Verona. I am the 8C team coordinator and soccer adviser. I started HBW's science club with Ms. Sullivan. For fifteen years, I was the yearbook adviser at HBW, and loved creating award-winning yearbooks for our students to enjoy. On school breaks, I love to visit my nephew and nieces in Minnesota as well as my family and friends around the country.  My travel dream is to visit Antarctica, the Azores, and Bhutan.  I love chocolate, coffee (Starbucks!), ice cream, anything pumpkin or fall-themed, Taylor Swift, Harry Potter (I'm a Ravenclaw!), and wearing Rothy's, shoes made from recycled water bottles!