Hola,

How wonderful it is to be at Lemon Bay High School!  I am looking forward to a wonderful year being part of the Manta family, and I must say I am honored to be so!

A bit about myself:
I taught high school Spanish for thirty-three years, all in the southeast hills of Kentucky where Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky touch at a tri-state marker.  It was a wonderful career and as well a wonderful place to raise our daughters.  However, my heart was always set on moving back to Florida.  I say "back" to Florida because as a child we lived in Plant City and Clearwater as my mother was a native Floridian; those two cities were our homes when we returned from Africa where my parents served as missionaries.  I have lived in many places, picking up roots and moving from here to there, but the deepest roots stayed planted on the Gulf Coast of Florida.  I was thrilled when we moved to Venice in 2018.  And since then I have been happily retired....until these last years when I realized I really missed teaching and being around teenagers.  So here I am back in the classroom after a five-year absence!  Technology has changed, and the world a bit too, but teaching Spanish and spending my day with teenagers still hold magic for me.

I am not a "native" speaker of Spanish, but have enjoyed building my abilities and knowledge through both education and travel.  My undergraduate degree is in Spanish from Wake Forest University, as is my teaching degree.  I have a master's degree in secondary education (Union College, Barbourville, KY) with Spanish studies from the University of Veracruz in Jalapa, Mexico.  My studies at Wake Forest were enriched with a semester at the University of Salamanca in Spain.  In addition to these travels for education, my Spanish proficiency has been enriched by travels over the last forty years in Mexico, Spain, Peru, Costa Rica and throughout the southwest of our country. One of the most enriching parts of my teaching career was sharing the world with my students, travelling with them to Europe, Mexico and Costa Rica.  It was also a joy during that time to host many exchange students in our home, whom we were fortunate to visit when they returned home to their own countries.  Travel is indeed a passion for me, as is reading, sewing, quilting, playing frisbee with our dog, and of course, the gulf beaches!

This year is indeed an adventure ahead, learning the names of one hundred and forty new students for my brain is I believe the greatest challenge!  But so far off to a good start with that.  I love my drive to Englewood each morning and being part of the wonderful community there.  My students are wonderful young people with whom I look forward to spending this next year.  And hopefully I will be able to meet parents along the way.  I love communication....so please let me know if you have any concerns or questions, and I will try my best to do the same.  

Wishing us all a wonderful year!  ¡GO MANTAS!

Gracias,
Señora Sandy Wilson