The spotlight this week is on the third grade teachers, Mrs. Andrea Jennings and Mrs. Caroline Wright. Mrs. Jennings has taught for a total of 29 years. One year was taught in a private school in northern Virginia and the other 28 years have been in Craig County. She has taught kindergarten, second and third grades. Mrs. Wright has been teaching for ten years, all in Craig County. She has taught kindergarten, fifth and third grades.
Mrs. Wright states that she became interested in teaching when “One of my own children had some very bad experiences in the third grade that took years to overcome. I felt that I had a lot to offer children in the areas of providing support but also structure in the classroom.” Mrs. Jennings remembers forcing her younger sister to play school in the summer and always wanting to teach. She has a special spot for teaching special needs children and originally was a special education major. She graduated from Radford University with a double major in education.
Mrs. Wright has been married for 30 years and she has three grown children. She also has two kittens and a yellow lab. Her family loves to travel together. They have backpacked and fished in Alaska and have traveled to Colorado. Mrs. Jennings has been married for 28 years to Bill Jennings. They have two grown sons that are Marines (one is currently serving and the other has been out for a year) and a beautiful daughter in law Sarah. Mrs. Jennings and her husband love to travel to new places on weekends, shop and hike together. They are members of the First Baptist Church in New Castle.
Both ladies agree that Craig County and McCleary have a wonderful atmosphere to work in and that the students are wonderful. Mrs. Wright states “most students are eager to learn and have a lot of science background due to living in the country.” Mrs. Jennings loves working with former kindergarten students and teaching children of former students. “Craig County is like a huge family that takes care of and supports each other”, added Mrs. Jennings.
In her spare time Mrs. Wright enjoys watching her daughter play college ice hockey and making quilts. Mrs. Jennings loves reading and doing things with her family.
-Submitted by Andrea Jennings
