Student Life
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Teacher Feature Algebra 2 teacher Wendy DiRico discusses her secret talents, musical aspirations and most shocking moment. Ian Ong Centerspread Editor How long have you been teaching at Conestoga? I came to Conestoga in 1986. I taught here for four years until 1990, when I had my oldest daughter. Then, I took 21 years off, and I came back a couple of years ago in 2011. Did you have any jobs before deciding to become a teacher? I always knew I wanted to be a teacher, so I never really did anything other than working at the snack bar at the local pool. My grandmother owned a candy shop, so growing up we always worked in the market and sold candy. I’ve really never had another job other than being a teacher because it’s always what I really wanted to do. Why did you become a math teacher? I’ve always loved math because once you get to the answer, there’s no more work to be done. In English, I’d write my paper and then I’d say to myself, “I know I can go back and make it better.” I’d edit it, and then I’d say, “I know I can still make it better.” The question is, where do you stop? I think that’s one reason I liked math, it was very concrete. When I got the answer, I got the answer. When you began teaching, what were your first impressions of Conestoga? My first impressions in 1986 were that this is a totally different place than my first year of teaching. I had taught one year at a school district that was very different than Conestoga, where about 60 to 70 percent of the kids went to college, but the other 30 to 40 percent did not. The expectations were very different. From the time I had my first interview here, I knew I was coming to a place where expectations were high for the students and that the parents had high expectations as well. When we’re doing something and a student asks a question, thinking a step ahead of where we are, that’s one thing that has always hit me about Conestoga: students really care about what they’re learning. Why do you think math is an important subject to study? A couple of years ago, I had a student who was in my math class. He really didn’t like math at all,
but he loved political science, so there was a day that I asked him to come up with a presentation on how math and political science are related. It is amazing that you see math everywhere: if you start talking about politics, if you want to win an election, you have to have the right number of votes. You have to know, “if I win a certain percentage in this district, is that enough to count the percentage I’m going to lose in this district?”
Then, when it comes to budgets, that has all to do with numbers. Math is important because it shows up everywhere, even places where you wouldn’t think it does. Tell me about your children. I have five daughters. The oldest is Erica; she’s 25 and a math teacher at Radnor High School. My second daughter, Tori, teaches seventh grade math and science in a little town called Pinetops, North Carolina. She is doing that through Teach for America, which is a national organization that recruits college students to teach in underprivileged schools. She happens to be in a very rural area, so I’m really proud of her for being down there. My next daughter, Meredith, is at Penn State studying physical education, so all three of them are following in my footsteps as teachers. I have a daughter, Rachel, who is a sophomore here and a daughter, Christie, who is a 7th grader at Valley Forge Middle School. What is your secret talent? I know how to do something called clogging, which is a southern kind of tap-dancing. Unlike tap shoes, clogs have taps both on the front and the back, and it’s for very southern mountain-style western dancing. When we were growing up, my family went to this place called Fon-
tana Vi l l a g e in North Carolina, and we would do clogging lessons every year. My
brother, my sisters and I took lessons along with a lot of our friends, and we would put on performances for the guests. Even now, when we have a wedding anniversary party for my parents or when we have special events, the four of us will get together and do a little clogging performance. Do you have any musical aspirations? One of the things on my bucket list would be to be in the chorus for “Les Mis.” I love the “Les Mis” music, I love the story and I’ve always thought it would be
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intervals. My first friend showed up at 6 p.m. that night, and they came with some excuse about a book that they had to return. Then 10 minutes later, one of my other friends came to the door with flowers. Finally when the third person arrived, that’s when it hit me. It was about the third or fourth person when my husband said that this was my surprise party. There were probably 20 families that all showed up at different times, but we all ended up together at the end. Also, my daughters came home from college to be there, so
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really fun to be on stage just as a member of the chorus for that. It would be really fun to be like Fantine, but I don’t think I have the voice for that. What is your most shocking moment? My husband threw a 50th “reverse surprise party” birthday party for me a couple of years ago, so rather than me showing up and everybody being there at the party, I was at home and he had people arrive at ten minute
Favorites: Song: “Your Great Name” by Natalie Grant Movie: “The Sound of Music” Things to watch on TV: Penn State Football games Food: Fitzkee’s chocolate Vacation Spot: Fontana Village, N.C.
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it was really fun. I’m not shocked easily, but that was just a total, total surprise. If you weren’t a teacher, where would you be right now? I did have a double major in political science in college, so there was always this thing about politics that really interested me. If I wasn’t a teacher, maybe I would do something in the political arena. Probably not running for office myself, but doing something behind the scenes, helping somebody else. What do you like to do outside of school? Spend time with my family, my daughters, my husband. I also help with our youth group at church, so that involves a fair amount of time. I would say between those two things and keeping my house clean, spending time with my family and helping out at church are probably the big things.
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