Lesley Williams has just retired from the River Falls School District and has joined our group this fall. Here is what she tells us about herself:
"I was born and raised in Louth, which is a small market town on
the east coast of England. I attended Durham University where I met my
husband on the first day during a tour of the library! We both studied
Geology, graduating in 1974. After that I spent a year on a postgraduate
teaching program in Newcastle in Northern England.
We came to the USA for four years in 1975 for my husband to
complete a PhD at UC Santa Barbara. Of course nothing goes according to
plan and we ended up living in Santa Barbara for seven years. During that
time I worked in a residential program for seriously disturbed youth, which was
on the Goleta headlands within yards of the ocean. It was a great
experience and I fell in love with special education. I completed a MS in
Special education in 1980. During our California years we travelled and
camped extensively, completing a six week circle of the USA. We came to River
Falls in 1982, never imagining we would stay a lifetime but here we are, having
raised two children in this lovely little town.
Professionally I retire after 37 years in teaching, all of it in
special education. My first two placements were in residential treatment
with seriously emotionally disturbed children both elementary and high school.
I came to the high school in River Falls in 1987 and worked there for 28
years. Most of that time was spent teaching students with learning
disabilities. I like working in a team and was lucky enough to be part of
two great teams, with two dedicated women for 25 years until they both retired,
and then with two new college graduates who reinvigorated me and made me
laugh! I believe we must have a razor sharp focus on life after high
school, using the student’s future goals to inform what we do in school.
I also think understanding ones learning style and self-advocacy are vital
skills to teach high school students. I still love going in to the high school
and working with students but I am so done with all the paperwork and
stress. Retirement is wonderful so far!"
"After graduation from United Theological Seminary of the Twin
Cities, I served as pastor of several United Church of Christ
congregations in the greater Milwaukee and Madison areas. During my time in
Madison I also completed a Master of Science in Social Work at UW- Madison.
Because we moved away from clusters of UCC churches, I spent the next decade
sometimes working as a geriatric social worker and sometimes serving as interim
pastor, for both requiring some evening and weekend commitments.
Becoming a mom late in life (at age forty), I began to reassess
the evening and weekend work associated with serving as a pastor of a local
church. Motivated by the idea of working Monday-Friday during the day and no
weekends, it seemed like a good idea to complete a teaching degree at our local
UW-River Falls. For the past fifteen years I have enjoyed the challenges and
benefits of working with the Prescott High School students. Yes, it was a joy
to teach AP English classes, but it was also a learning experience with my
intelligent but less than motivated students as well as our struggling
students. All of them taught me about their view of the world, of their
educational needs, and of the possibilities in their lives. Together we
stressed that our goal was not just a grade but becoming lifelong learners, of
being curious about people and events and life. We cannot know who our students
might yet become, and I was committed to competently teach each student to the
best of my ability.
These past fifteen years went fast and furious at times, but I
come away from teaching with a sense of contributing to the ongoing life
process that moves us from who we have been to who we might yet become."
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