Years Teaching:  35 years in GUSD (11 years at Columbus Elementary School; 24 years at Toll Middle School)

Teaching Experiences:  I have taught every grade level from first through eighth in my thirty-five years of teaching.  I was a classroom teacher at Columbus Elementary School from 1988 to 1993.  After that, I became the Columbus School Science Coordinator for two years.  I continued at Columbus as Curriculum Coach from 1995 to 1999. I started teaching Adolescent Skills at Toll Middle School in 1999.  In the year 2000, I started teaching English and English Language Development (ELD) and also became the Curriculum Coach at Toll. In 2003, I became the newspaper adviser for the Toll newspaper, Titan Chronicle. In 2006, I started teaching Journalism to 7th and 8th graders.  In 2007, I stopped coaching teachers and focused only on my students. In 2008, there was no more Journalism class at Toll, but I continued to teach regular and advanced English, as well as ELD.  From 2008-2021, I taught 7th-grade English and advanced English in the Pink Panther Core. Since 2021, I am teaching an elective similar to the adolescent skills class I first taught at Toll.  This elective is called Skills for Success, and it is focused on helping teens learn the academic and personal skills to help them become more successful in school and in life.

Birthplace/Birthdate:  Bucharest, Romania / July 8, 1958 (You do the math...)

Ethnicity: 1/4 Romanian and 3/4 Armenian

FAMILY: My husband Sevag and I had three wonderful daughters.  Unfortunately, on March 12, 2022, our family suffered the devastating loss of one of our girls. Jennifer, one of our daughters, passed away from cancer. Her identical twin sister, Diana, is alive and well, with a family of her own. My youngest daughter, Katherine, is also alive and well.  All our daughters are products of Glendale schools. They went to Columbus, Toll, and Hoover. Diana is married to Elias Saba, also a former Columbus, Toll, and Hoover student. They are the proud parents of George Saba and Christopher Saba, my adorable grandsons. Katherine, my youngest daughter, is a horticulturist and a plant propagation specialist.

FUN FACTS: We used to have a small ranch on one acre of land where we got all our water from a well.  I enjoy gardening, so we grew our own vegetables to go with the fresh eggs from our chickens. Before we lived on the ranch, I used to train animals for movies and commercials. I LOVE animals, so we have always had MANY pets.  On the ranch, we had about 28 chickens, one rooster, one goat, 2 dogs, and 23 cats.  We also had rattlesnakes, ground squirrels, and big, hairy tarantulas that used to visit us and often terrified our guests. As of today, we have two dogs, two cats, and four tortoises (3 of them are 35 years old this year and one is 13 years old.)  Almost all of our pets are rescued animals. In fact, three of our cats were found under the vending machines at Toll. Our tortoises are from a licensed breeder. The photo on this page is what I did on a dare with my students.  I told them if our core got 100% PTA participation, I would color my hair green and wear pink puffy earrings. The Pink Panther Core parents/students had 100% PTA participation that year, so I kept my promise to color my hair green and wear pink feather earrings.

PERSONAL INFO: My taste in art and music is very eclectic.  I enjoy most types of music, but I especially love music to which I can dance. I used to take ballet, jazz, and Armenian dance lessons when I was a young girl. I also took martial arts when I was sixteen; my kung fu master was James Wing Woo.   I was on the track and field team (100 m. hurdles), and a forward on the girls' varsity basketball team in high school.  I also played tennis in high school and as a freshman in college. I have had some health issues with arthritis since 2012, which caused me to use a rolling walker for many years because I could not walk on my own for even one step. However, on June 20, 2018, I had double hip replacement surgery, and I am doing much better since then. I am walking farther and farther distances without any assistance, and I rarely use the rolling walker. I was able to make my daughter Jennifer's dream come true by dancing at her wedding. Sadly, when Jennifer died in March of 2022, her husband, Grant Ching, was only left with precious memories of his wife and her cat Tinkerbelle, whom he loves. In March, I also found out that I had 2 types of uterine cancer. One of the types was very aggressive, so I had to have surgery right away as well as chemotherapy and radiation therapy. By October, I was cancer-free. In October, we had a beautiful Celebration of Life for my daughter Jennifer, and I'm hoping the future holds good health for everyone.

Educational Background: After graduating from Armenian Mesrobian High School, I went to UC Irvine as a freshman. I always wanted to be a teacher, but everyone discouraged me from becoming a teacher, so I went to UC Davis as a sophomore and junior, in the hopes of becoming a veterinarian. (Working with children and animals were my two major passions.) I ended up getting my bachelor's degree in Animal Behavior after attending UCLA as a senior.  I got my teaching credential from Cal. State L.A. and my Master's degree from Point Loma University as a graduate student.  I have also taken some extension classes from Azusa Pacific University. I find great joy in reading and learning new things, so I had a lot of fun going to all those different universities.

Some of my favorite authors/poets are Jane Austen, J.R.R. Tolkien, Edgar Allan Poe, Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, Jean M. Auel, J. K. Rowling, Laurie King, Eoin Colfer, Naomi Novik, Andrew Clements, Diana Gabaldon, Robert Browning, Mark Twain, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Kim M. Watt, Joanne Fluke, Christopher Moore, Joanne Fluke, Jessica Beatrice Fletcher (wink), and many more... 

Degrees Held:  B.A. in Animal Behavior, UCLA; Teaching Credential, CSULA; M.A. in Education, Point Loma University; Administrative Credential (Preliminary), Point Loma University

Reason I started teaching: I love children, and I especially love working with middle schoolers. They are so much fun to be around!  My students bring me great joy and keep me feeling young.