Background: Ms. McCullough attended and graduated from Triton High School in Runnemede, NJ in 2001. She attended college at Ursinus College from 2001-2005 where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and a Minor in Spanish. She followed up her time at Ursinus College working towards earning her Masters of Arts in Teaching Elementary Education at TCNJ from 2005-2006. She has worked at 3 of the four buildings in our school district during her 18 years of teaching. She worked at the elementary school of the first 17 years. When she first starting teaching the sixth grade was a part of the elementary school. When sixth grade moved to the middle school, Mrs. Rizzotte, Mrs. Byrnes, and Mrs. McCullough all went back to the middle school to teach a sixth grade class during their first period and then went back to teach the rest of the day at the elementary school. She did that for a couple years until the schedule changed at HMS. This is her first year teaching at the High School.

What positions did you hold?

Spanish Teacher and boys and girls tennis coach

Why were you inspired to go into education?

When I was too little to go to school, my Grandpa and I would sit in his “classroom” in the basement and we played school. I have always loved learning. My Grandpa’s advice was, “Be a sponge. Absorb everything,” I took his advice to heart. I got so caught up in the learning that I didn’t really consider what I would DO until my junior year of college. I took one of the Myers-Briggs tests that tell you which type of career you might best enjoy and be good at based on your personality type. When the results suggested being a teacher, it was a light bulb moment for me. I was always the kid in school who explained things to my classmates. I had also had jobs tutoring and teaching tennis lessons and I really enjoyed doing it. For a life-long learner like me, spending a career in a school was a dream job! I always wanted to make a difference and 1 knew that teaching would be a job that would let me do that.

My least favorite thing about my job is… Lunch duty. I don’t have any, so its been a very good year! haha

The thing I enjoy the most about doing my job…is watching hard working kids achieve and celebrating their success.

My biggest fear is… something bad happening to one of my family members.

One thing about me that would surprise people is… Spanish was my minor in college. I am certified to teach elementary school, middle school science (I had a lot of science credits because I wanted to be a chemist for a while), or Spanish K-12. 1 have a Masters of Arts in Teaching Elementary Education. There weren’t a lot of elementary education openings at that time. Because I speak Spanish and minored in it, I was able to pass the OPI, get certified to teach Spanish, and get this job. I highly recommend minoring in Spanish in college because you never know what doors it might open-it certainly worked for me!

A lot of people know that I played high school and college tennis and went on to coach high school (shout out to Mr. Salvatore-he was one of the captains and key members of our South Jersey Group III State Championship Team in 2014!) and college tennis. People probably don’t know that I would describe myself as an uncoordinated but hard working athlete. I love tennis so much that I spent countless hours on the court trying to get better. If you had told ne when I was a kid in high school that I would end up playing college tennis, let alone oing on to coach high school and college tennis I never would have believed it. I think it is ery important to hold onto the things in life that you are passionate about. My two obbies, Spanish and tennis, ended up becoming my career! You are all starting to think bout what occupations you might want. We spend a lot of time at our jobs so it should be mething you enjoy. Where what you love meets what you are good at, that is your cation.

When I’m not in school, you can find me… at my Mom’s house, at a restaurant, on a pickleball court, or playing Settlers of Catan at a friend’s house.

One thing I learned after my first year at HHS is…. our high school offers a lot of incredible opportunities for language learners (dual credit, Seal a Biliteracy, etc.).