Mrs. McGuire
Sep 29th, 2014 by Terri McGuire
My name is Mrs. McGuire and I have been a 6th grade teacher at Syracuse Arts Academy since it opened in 2006. I have taught for 38 years and really love being a teacher. I feel very fortunate to have connected with SAA, since my teaching style has always incorporated the arts.
Before teaching at SAA, I taught 5th grade for 16 years at a small college-prep, private school in Provo called Meridian School. Before that, I taught 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, high school math, college, and preschool. I discovered I really LOVE teaching 6th grade students best; you are just the right age to know how to do so many things, you have a natural curiosity about the world, and enjoy learning about so many diverse things.
I look forward to the grand adventure each year brings and the amazing students that share the journey with me. We work hard, but we have fun, too. “Teamwork” is our class theme and my goal is to help everyone be his or her personal best.
| My husband, Duane, and I live in Clinton and we enjoy golfing, biking, woodworking, and gardening. This summer we designed and built a deck together. Quite a feat for two old people!It was fun to watch the deck grow from a Sketch Up design to a real deck we could walk on and enjoy. The thing we like best is that we built the whole thing ourselves, from the concrete foundation to the rafters. (Well we had a little help with the steel beams.) |  |
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We have two children. Our son Ryan lives in the woods in a mountain home in New Hampshire. He is a computer engineer manager for a company based in California. Needless to say, he works from home and leads teleconferences every day. |
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Our daughter Erin is the graphic designer for Coates Kokes, a marketing design firm in downtown Portland Oregon. Her work helps promote their slogan, Live Better with emphasis on energy, sustainability, health, destinations, and social cause. |
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My husband, Duane, owns his own business, McGuire Piano. He is a piano technician and tuner, having recently retired from his career as a computer programmer at Northrop Grumman in Clearfield. He is also a bit of a Renaissance Man, being the person most likely to know how to do just about everything. |
My family and I have computers in common; I really enjoy using computers, software and other technologies, together with the arts, to help students learn more effectively. We write songs and chants, choreograph movements, create skits, and make videos to help teach things that are hard to learn (for example, learning to divide fractions or how microorganisms grow in different environments). These are called Kids Teach Kids projects and you can watch some of them on my teacher blog.
Other projects we will explore are newscasts for our school, fractured fairytale puppet shows (that incorporate a lesson from our science curriculum), a mask making project that connects to cultures of the world, the Presidential Volunteer Service projects, film club, 6th grade Dragon Knights, and recycling. We are at the beginning of an amazing experience in education, with many exciting adventures waiting for us to discover them.
You can find my blog at http://blogs.syracuseartsacademy.org/tmcguire