Connie Duff
(posted July 6, 2010)
Gary Woodbury convinced me that I could teach chemistry…(“You took it in high school didn’t you?) and thus I started my fulltime career in FCSD. Previous to that I had worked in East Irondequoit CSD and Mother of Sorrows in Greece, NY (Tom Heary’s former parish as it turned out!) before coming to the Dunkirk-Fredonia area and started subbing for “Colonel Willett”. And I had one wonderful year at Cardinal Mindszenty High School teaching Biology, Physics and Business Math. I taught chemistry in FHS until 1999 when I obtained my administrative certification (along with Roger Pacos) and worked as a Staff Development Specialist with Erie 2 BOCES and then Assistant Superintendent for Instruction. Budget cuts in 2005 eliminated the ASI position, but I wasn’t ready for retirement (yet!) and accepted the position of Assistant Superintendent for Instruction in the Hilton CSD. I retired from Hilton in 2008 and am now involved in the Hilton Education Foundation, Genesee Valley ASCD , STANYS and NYSSELA (New York State Science Educator Leadership Association). For the past two years I have worked part time as the Director for RAC-CEMS (www.raccems.org) Summer Institutes. We are offering nine no-cost STEM teaching institutes for teachers this year and I get to combine my love for science (and math) with working with teachers…best of all worlds!
My biggest challenge is learning how to “not work”…so I am planning several trips with my sister, Bonnie to Bethel Woods, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Stratford and a fall trip to Berlin to visit with another former FCSD teacher, Jane Ellys as well as our annual pilgrimage to Pompano Beach !