Penney Ann Morse Winter

Penney, who married Bob on August 4, 1972, is an "Intervention Specialist" for "SLD" students, teaching at Garfield Middle School in Lakewood, Ohio (a first-ring suburb of Cleveland, along the Lake Erie coast just west of the city). "SLD" is edu-speak for "Specific Learning Disability" and refers to children of normal or above-normal intelligence who have difficulty with processing specific kinds of information and may need alternative modes of instruction, or curriculum modification, as a result. She earned her Master's degree several years ago, and continued to take classes to improve her skills and climb up the pay scale (she's now at the top!).

She is a gifted teacher, who is selected annually to mentor other teachers and supervise people doing student teaching. She especially enjoys the fact that, for the most part, "her" students are included in regular classrooms, which gives her the opportunity to co-teach with regular-ed faculty, who value her energy and verve and delight in working with her. Parents appreciate the fact that she is always willing to go "the extra mile" in helping children succeed, and many of "her kids" return to visit her after moving on into high school and beyond. In addition to mentoring, she serves in a variety of other school and district capacities.

Apart from her teaching, Penney's great passions are fabric and flowers. She's never happier than when she is digging in the dirt or cutting out a new sewing project! She recently acquired a top-of-the-line embroidery sewing machine, and has more ideas for putting it to use than could be finished in several normal lifetimes!Other hobbies include reading, fitness, and any form of ice-skating on TV (she could be an Olympic judge with no problem at all!).

She spends a good portion of each Summer helping her mother take care of a 10-acre homesite atop a hill in southeastern Vermont, and catching up on her reading and her retail therapy. She is pictured here on a "retail therapy" getaway weekend in Bayfield, Ontario, November 11, 2007 (note the Canadian "Rememberance Day" poppy).

E-mail to Penney