User:Winwhelan/sandbox

I grew up in Chicago on the northwest side along with my three brothers and one sister. As a young child, my grandparents lived with us. When my mother's mother died, we moved to a much smaller house. It was in the city limits, but it seemed rural because there were only a few houses on our block. Later we moved to a house nearer to a city-like neighborhood. I attended St. Cornelius Parish Grade School and Alvernia High School. After high school I entered the order of the School Sisters of St. Francis, of which I am still a member. I graduated from Alverno College in Milwaukee with a major in Latin and a minor in Education. I was sent to Waupun Wisconsin to teach first grade. It took me a while to learn how to teach, but there was a lot of help from the other teachers and from the principal. After several years I was sent to Sacred Heart School in Lombard IL, and then to St. Joseph High School in Kenosha IL to teach Latin. I remember being very nervous about teaching students that were taller and bigger than myself, but soon got the idea that teaching Latin to high schoolers was not so different from teaching first graders how to read and write.