Roster for Great Plains 2000

Roster for Great Plains 2000
Roster for Great Plains 2000

Kathy Megyeri
Sherwood High School
Kensington MD
Kathy Megyeri is a 34 year veteran classroom English teacher whose heart never left the "Plains." She was born in Wisconsin, reared in Minnesota, went to college among the Norwegians at St. Olaf, and after 35 years of residing in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., she still retains her Midwest accent. She married a Hungarian, treasures the mounted buffalo head on her living room wall, loves to shop at Cabella's, collects Indian jewelry, and enjoys fishing for walleye on the Shikag Lake in Ontario via float plane. She's taught in Kiev, Ukraine with the USIA and last summer was a Fulbright Scholar to Singapore and Malaysia where she attempted to teach English to the headhunters of Borneo. She looks forward to returning to her "roots" as she contemplates a retirement among buffalo, loons, walleye, wolves, and Jesse (the Body) Ventura.

Tony Dalasio
Lackawanna Trail Jr.-Sr. High School
Factoryville PA
Tony Dalasio is a history/government/economics teacher at Lackawanna Trail Junior-Senior High School, 20 miles northwest of Scranton, Pennsylvania. He's from the Philadelphia area, and when he and his wife (Mary Barbara) were ready to settle down after teaching in Philadelphia and Honduras, they returned to Mary Barbara's hometown for grad school (University of Scranton) and a family (AJ and Maria). The whole gang is coming to North Dakota, and Tony's looking forward to a chance to experience a part of the country he has often taught about, but has never truly experienced. Tony's a die-hard Philadelphia sports fan, coaches Little League, is deputy Grand Knight of Council #6611 of Knights of Columbus, has been Student Council advisor at his school for eight years, and his presently finishing up a doctorate (ABD) in curriculum and instruction at Penn State. His daughter wants her 8th birthday party to be at the Mall of America, and his son wants to see Vikings training camp and a Twins game. His theme song is Weird Al Yankovic's "I lost on Jeopardy"

Joe Green
Minden High School
Minden NE
Joe Green teaches English in Minden High School, Minden, Nebraska. He holds degrees from Kearney State College (now the University of Nebraska-Kearney), where he wrote his MA thesis on Chaucer's Clerk's Tale. Joe's current academic interests are composition, the novels of Robert Penn Warren, and the history and literature of the American West, especially the works of John Neihardt. Joe credits three previous NEH Summer Seminars--in Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton, respectively--and a Mellon Institute in the Frontier as the best academic experiences of his career. For several years, Joe officiated wrestling, including the twelve national championships and the 1984 Olympic Trials. A native Nebraskan, he enjoys frigid winters, strong winds, the Platte River, and Cornhusker football.

Bart Popowski
Valley View Elementary School
Rapid City SD
I'm a native South Dakotan. The different branches of my family have been in the Dakotas for from three to five generations. I recently moved back to the Black Hills after 9 years in Washington state. We moved around central and eastern SD while I was a child, but the grandfolks lived in the Hills, so this where I feel at home. Prior to that I taught a year in a one-room school in the Sand Hills of Nebraska (Mari Sandoz country), and substituted for a year in Kansas City, Missouri. I spent two years teaching English for the Peace Corps in South Korea, where I learned enough Korean to embarrass myself on a regular basis. My dad was a wildlife biologist, and his dad wrote books about hunting, so I grew up with an outdoor perspective. Being outdoors and living in the country continues to be very important to me. I remain a hunter, but now of wildflower seeds and large flat rocks for my lawn. My hobbies include genealogy and gathering buffalo chips for my compost heap. My passions include my wife Nancy; our three dogs- Bailey, Selim and Khalifa; and Shakespeare. I must confess I am hoping there will be an opportunity to slip up to Saskatoon while we are in East End, to take in the "Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan' festival. (But not if it conflicts with any seminar activities.) Maybe something will be playing in Winnipeg too. I am also planning to visit Warsaw, ND, about a hundred miles north of Fargo, and research my gr-gr-grandfather and family, for whom I was named. I currently teach 5th grade, and am hoping to transfer to a middle school position soon. Very soon. But that's another story.

Suzzanne Caraway
Shady Grove Elementary
Bertram TX
I'm originally from Alaska, born two years before the territory became a state (my 5th-grade students get extra credit for doing the math and research) and am now transplanted in beautiful Central Texas, where it only took 17 years for my marrow to thaw. This is my seventh year to teach, and my second year to deal with an empty nest...I'm enjoying both situations more and more as time goes by! My husband and I will celebrate our 25th anniversary in November, and my oldest son will marry Mary in September. (My friends advise me that the mother-in-law-to-be should wear beige and stay out of the way...my sojourn to Saskatchewan should keep me out of trouble!) My youngest son is a jazz-club bartender, a full-time student with a gpa of 3.7, and as of this date, has no degree plan. In addition to wording, I'm an avid fan of gardening, walking, quilting, and finding creative ways of avoiding housework and laundry. I've generally been sheltered from the wind and most troubles, nestled amongst mountains or trees and loved ones, but I am anticipating the sharing of texts and ideas and fun with new friends in the North Dakota setting.

Joe Gardewin
Sacred Hearts Academy
Honolulu HI
Well, I am probably the newest 'old' teacher in the group. I spent 27 years in the Air Force (almost a career) before having to find a real job. Last Air Force assignment was as the Air Attache in Warsaw, Poland (1990-1993). Thanks to Uncle Sam, I got to learn Polish before I went. Was thoroughly qualified for Poland because my previous assignments had basically been in Asia and along the way, I acquired a Masters in East Asian Studies from the University of the Philippines. Started teaching six years ago and thanks to some great students who taught me more than I taught them, I am doing fairly well. Check out what my kids do through links on my web page Ginjoe's. I teach US History to some incredible juniors at Sacred Hearts Academy, all girls school K-12, in Honolulu, HI (see http://newdeal.feri.org/eleanor/hawaii.htm ), and Asian Studies Honors to some gifted sophomores (see http://www.angelfire.com/hi2/asian/yesframe.html) . Truth is, I am a Great Plains exile living in Hawaii. Er, would you buy that I lived in Minnesota until I was seven on a farm not too far from Fargo? Three of my siblings were born in Fargo. (My wife was born in Korea, but has called Hawai'i home since 1964 -- deal was since she made a home wherever the Air Force sent us for 20 years, I would retire in Hawai'i because her family is here -- she clearly deserved that). Oh, besides teaching, I am advisor to 141 freshman. That part of my job requires that I follow them through until they graduate, do the proms, banquets, May Day (Hula in Hawai'i) program and much more including being a "safe" adult male figure for them. This is too long already so will close by adding that I am an inveterate Cleveland Indians fan (since 1954 when I was nine), a poet wannabe and I can cook. I can't wait to meet each you in person.

Mike Pekarek
Centerville High School
Centerville OH
I'm a full-blooded Bohemian from the Czech community around Wilber, Nebraska where as a kid I would cool off in the summer by sitting in the stock tank with my cousin Kenny and his dog, the slimy water up to our chins. When I was a teenager, my dad was transferred to Ohio, a place where people don't carry water to their trees. I still can't believe the trees in southern Ohio. There's a kind of gentleness in the land here; I relish it, but I live for the open skies, spending the better part of my summers roaming the Plains and restoring the decrepit family farm that my grandfather settled in the 1920s. My degree is English literature (Ohio State, B.A. 1971). I took my education courses at Wright State University and was certificated in 1972. I've been a high school English teacher ever since, and I currently teach English at Centerville High School, a suburb of Dayton, Ohio. I love architecture, history, V-8 engines, bluegrass music and windmills. I'm an avid reader, runner and Ohio State Buckeye fan. My wife, Susan and I live in a 90-year-old brick foursquare in the city. The place is built like a battleship, so we've dubbed it the Missouri. We have no children of our own, but we've been adopted by several of my students over the years. They often come home from college to visit and eat. Susan, who is half-Kentuckian and fiercely proud of it, adores the Plains for the joy of having wind always available for drying laundry on the line.

Linda Bellizzi
Berkshire School
Sheffield MA
I'm an east coaster, having lived my first twenty-two years in south central Virginia, my last twenty-two in the quietest corner of Massachusetts (bordering NY and CT), and some time in the middle in DC, California, and NYC. I talk a lot about our kids--Matt, Susie, and Ben--and our rot-lab Nato, who'll be staying behind this summer with my husband John. I know very little about the plains, even though my dad's family is from Oklahoma before it WAS Oklahoma, I'm told. Though I've had kids from all over the world in my twelve years teaching English at Berkshire School, I can count the number of my students from plains states on one hand. I've got a lot to learn.

Mary Thompson
Stanley High School
Stanley ND
True or False - The Morrill Act gave free weiners to the slaves. That's it, folks! That's the kind of humor people can expect from the people of the Northern Plains. I'm Mary Thompson, a life resident of North Dakota. Having read the bios that have come in so far, I must say, I feel a little like an audiovisual aid. One of my great grandfathers came to the US as a stowaway on a merchant ship, and served as a buffalo hunter for the railroads before he settled down on a farm near the Red River. Another homesteaded near Nash, ND (northwest of Grafton), and another was one of the handful of bachelors for whom Bachelor's Grove was named. - But that's not my story. I started teaching in the Red River Valley about a thousand years ago, and except for a move 250 miles to the west, not much has changed. I'm still teaching, and I still get goose bumps on my knees when a student masters a concept he/she has struggled to learn. I've escaped the state on several occasions, but have always been drawn back to North Dakota. There's something about swarms of giant mosquitoes in the summer... . Truly, there's a tremendous beauty in summer on the plains that's hard to leave. -And the sense of accomplishment that comes from surviving the intense snow, and wind, and cold of a North Dakota blizzard is actually exhilarating. I have a list of credentials and accomplishments that is reasonably respectable, but I also have a confession to make. Every now and again I feel hungry to learn something new, so I go out to find something new (to me) and interesting to think about, and that's where most of the list has actually come from.

Susan Mitchell
Jefferson Middle School
San Diego CA
My bookshelves are the best indicators of my passions and interests in life. There you'll find diaries from the westard migration, first editions of some of the great classics, journals and maps of the Lewis and Clark expedition, contemporary literature about national, state, and local governments, numerous books on poetry, sprituality, and Native American tribes, plus relics from my travels and important photographs of my children, family, and friends. The quick version is that I'm a mom, a writer and a reader, a political junkie, and an adventurer who has a passion for life!

Alex Dobrowolski
Franklin High School
Somerset NJ
Greetings, comrades! I salute you, you who toil before the blackboard! I've been toiling before that blackboard for 37 years. . . . A short Bio: Born in Poland,came to America at age 8 with my father in l947, rose to become a Business Teacher/Social Studies/Geography teacher/Dept. Head/K-12 supervisor/Social Studies Teacher in that order. Married 37 years to Joan now a retired, oft honored, brilliant H.S. English teacher who has been a tremendous asset to my personal growth and advancement. You'll meet her this summer. We have two daughters, one a second grade teacher. Passions, Interests, and Dreams: I've been running races for the last 20 years. The highlight has been the N.Y. City Marathon. I run between 20 and 30 races a year. For the last 22 years I've been officiating high school varsity soccer, basketball, and softball. Joan and I love to dance, travel, do Broadway shows and operas. We have a summer home on Maine Coast where for the last l8 years we've allowed no TV, books long walks, and local volunteer work only. In the near future I'd like to learn to fly and complete a works in progress book based on father's life in Poland between l935 and l947. He lost everything to German occupiers, survived as a drummer in a band and had adventures we read about. He saved me from Polish/Russian poverty and drabness. I look forward to meeting you.

Harry Sims
Laguna Blanca School
Santa Barbara CA
Here are a few details about my life in Santa Barbara in a somewhat random order. I've been teaching on and off in this community since 1967. Some of my first students are now grandparents! However, despite all my gray hair, I still manage to play a lot of tennis each week, and every night I walk my two Siberian huskies two or more miles. I'll be bringing my racket to Fargo in case one of you is also a tennis enthusiast. I killed my television about eight years ago, so I usually manage to read one or two books a week. I'm married to a primary grade teacher who is also an accomplished puppeteer and a nationally known consultant on school gardening programs. Judy will be spending three weeks in England and Scotland visiting puppeteers just before I leave for Fargo. We have two grown children: Casey is in corporate management with Toys 'R Us, and Amber is a sophomore at Santa Barbara City College. I just finished my tenth year at the Laguna Blanca School. It's a small but beautiful private school located in a neighborhood of $10 million homes. Every day I drive my battered 14 year old pickup three miles to school and park next to Range Rovers and Lincoln Navigators. (My other car is a 15 year old VW van.) At work I wear my standard issue navy blazer and school tie, but at home I'm just a Wal-Mart kind of guy. Small class size is the main reason I enjoy my job at Laguna. This year I averaged ten students per class. I am thrilled to be a part of the Great Plains seminar. I have driven across the country eight times, so I am familiar with the long stretches of open prarie, but I've actually never been as far north as North Dakota. I spent the first eighteen years of my life living in northern Ohio and southern Ontario. We moved to California in 1961 when my father sold his grocery business and bought a citrus ranch in Ojai, CA. At age 82 my father still works in the groves every day, riding his ATV or driving his '46 Jeep as he checks irrigation lines or tests for sugar content. Two of my hobbies are photography and wine-making. I'm currently working on two orange wines (using Sims Ranch valencia and navel oranges, naturally). Dry orange wine is actually gaining popularity in parts of Japan. My partner and I are bottling about four cases next week, so I'll be sure to bring some to the seminar.

Karen Madorin
Ellis High School
Ellis KS
Sixth generation Kansan who did not grow up in Kansas, but who has now spent half her life on the prairie describes me, Karen Madorin. Wife, mother, veteran English teacher, reader, writer/poet, traveler, outdoors person,and generally curious person would be terms other people might use to describe me.
For a person who lets the words "What is the worst thing that can happen to me?" guide many of my choices, I have enjoyed many new experiences and faced several difficult situations. The bonuses of living by this motto are the amazing and wonderful people I meet along the way. Each one has something new to share.
I never expected to live in Kansas during my rootless growing up years, which covered every state in the continental U.S. where an oil boom existed. The fact I ended up rooted in the middle of both of my families' home territory amazes me every time I think very long about it.
What I have discovered living in the middle of section of wheatland, bordered by a wandering creek is that the land nourishes not only my body, but also my soul. I love every moment I spend roaming creek and pasture, and I am thankful for the chance to explore through reading, writing, and discussion this place I loved even before I knew it.
Sometimes, we don't know where home is until we arrive. Some search forever and never find it, but thankfully I have arrived and recognized home in this ancient seabed we call the plains.

Ryland Clarke I've taught at Collegiate School in New York City for the past twenty-five years. Before that I taught for seven years in public and private schools in Baltimore, my home town, and in France and Spain. My family and I love living near New York City. The town of Yonkers is just north of the city, and we can see (not easily) the Hudson River from our house. Our daughters now prefer NYC to Yonkers, a city of 200,000 that they consider "dullsville." After staying in Fargo, Jen thinks that Yonkers looks pretty lively (sorry, Plainsfolk). To be sure, she said this on the way back from seeing a romanticized view of NYC in "Keeping the Faith" at the Cinema Grill (the best part of Fargo to her, for she's not much on nature walks). I miss her and the rest of my family very much. At first my wife and both children were coming, but our younger daughter took a job in camp because she didn't know of anyone her age who was coming here. Still, I'm enjoying my stay thanks to Tom and all of you. I've joined Mike and Alex on the 6:00 am jog, though not every day. During the year I enjoy jogging as well as reading and going to as many plays, movies, and museums as I can afford(it's one thing to visit the city, but it's even better to live there). I'm learning, though, to appreciate the Great Plains.

Seminarians Back Home

Kathy Megyeri Sherwood High School Kensington MD	Kathy Megyeri is a 34 year veteran classroom English teacher whose heart never left the "Plains." She was born in Wisconsin, reared in Minnesota, went to college among the Norwegians at St. Olaf, and after 35 years of residing in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., she still retains her Midwest accent. She married a Hungarian, treasures the mounted buffalo head on her living room wall, loves to shop at Cabella's, collects Indian jewelry, and enjoys fishing for walleye on the Shikag Lake in Ontario via float plane. She's taught in Kiev, Ukraine with the USIA and last summer was a Fulbright Scholar to Singapore and Malaysia where she attempted to teach English to the headhunters of Borneo. She looks forward to returning to her "roots" as she contemplates a retirement among buffalo, loons, walleye, wolves, and Jesse (the Body) Ventura.
Tony Dalasio Lackawanna Trail Jr.-Sr. High School Factoryville PA	Tony Dalasio is a history/government/economics teacher at Lackawanna Trail Junior-Senior High School, 20 miles northwest of Scranton, Pennsylvania. He's from the Philadelphia area, and when he and his wife (Mary Barbara) were ready to settle down after teaching in Philadelphia and Honduras, they returned to Mary Barbara's hometown for grad school (University of Scranton) and a family (AJ and Maria). The whole gang is coming to North Dakota, and Tony's looking forward to a chance to experience a part of the country he has often taught about, but has never truly experienced. Tony's a die-hard Philadelphia sports fan, coaches Little League, is deputy Grand Knight of Council #6611 of Knights of Columbus, has been Student Council advisor at his school for eight years, and his presently finishing up a doctorate (ABD) in curriculum and instruction at Penn State. His daughter wants her 8th birthday party to be at the Mall of America, and his son wants to see Vikings training camp and a Twins game. His theme song is Weird Al Yankovic's "I lost on Jeopardy"
Joe Green Minden High School Minden NE	Joe Green teaches English in Minden High School, Minden, Nebraska. He holds degrees from Kearney State College (now the University of Nebraska-Kearney), where he wrote his MA thesis on Chaucer's Clerk's Tale. Joe's current academic interests are composition, the novels of Robert Penn Warren, and the history and literature of the American West, especially the works of John Neihardt. Joe credits three previous NEH Summer Seminars--in Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton, respectively--and a Mellon Institute in the Frontier as the best academic experiences of his career. For several years, Joe officiated wrestling, including the twelve national championships and the 1984 Olympic Trials. A native Nebraskan, he enjoys frigid winters, strong winds, the Platte River, and Cornhusker football.
Bart Popowski Valley View Elementary School Rapid City SD	I'm a native South Dakotan. The different branches of my family have been in the Dakotas for from three to five generations. I recently moved back to the Black Hills after 9 years in Washington state. We moved around central and eastern SD while I was a child, but the grandfolks lived in the Hills, so this where I feel at home. Prior to that I taught a year in a one-room school in the Sand Hills of Nebraska (Mari Sandoz country), and substituted for a year in Kansas City, Missouri. I spent two years teaching English for the Peace Corps in South Korea, where I learned enough Korean to embarrass myself on a regular basis. My dad was a wildlife biologist, and his dad wrote books about hunting, so I grew up with an outdoor perspective. Being outdoors and living in the country continues to be very important to me. I remain a hunter, but now of wildflower seeds and large flat rocks for my lawn. My hobbies include genealogy and gathering buffalo chips for my compost heap. My passions include my wife Nancy; our three dogs- Bailey, Selim and Khalifa; and Shakespeare. I must confess I am hoping there will be an opportunity to slip up to Saskatoon while we are in East End, to take in the "Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan' festival. (But not if it conflicts with any seminar activities.) Maybe something will be playing in Winnipeg too. I am also planning to visit Warsaw, ND, about a hundred miles north of Fargo, and research my gr-gr-grandfather and family, for whom I was named. I currently teach 5th grade, and am hoping to transfer to a middle school position soon. Very soon. But that's another story.
Suzzanne Caraway Shady Grove Elementary Bertram TX	I'm originally from Alaska, born two years before the territory became a state (my 5th-grade students get extra credit for doing the math and research) and am now transplanted in beautiful Central Texas, where it only took 17 years for my marrow to thaw. This is my seventh year to teach, and my second year to deal with an empty nest...I'm enjoying both situations more and more as time goes by! My husband and I will celebrate our 25th anniversary in November, and my oldest son will marry Mary in September. (My friends advise me that the mother-in-law-to-be should wear beige and stay out of the way...my sojourn to Saskatchewan should keep me out of trouble!) My youngest son is a jazz-club bartender, a full-time student with a gpa of 3.7, and as of this date, has no degree plan. In addition to wording, I'm an avid fan of gardening, walking, quilting, and finding creative ways of avoiding housework and laundry. I've generally been sheltered from the wind and most troubles, nestled amongst mountains or trees and loved ones, but I am anticipating the sharing of texts and ideas and fun with new friends in the North Dakota setting.
Joe Gardewin Sacred Hearts Academy Honolulu HI	Well, I am probably the newest 'old' teacher in the group. I spent 27 years in the Air Force (almost a career) before having to find a real job. Last Air Force assignment was as the Air Attache in Warsaw, Poland (1990-1993). Thanks to Uncle Sam, I got to learn Polish before I went. Was thoroughly qualified for Poland because my previous assignments had basically been in Asia and along the way, I acquired a Masters in East Asian Studies from the University of the Philippines. Started teaching six years ago and thanks to some great students who taught me more than I taught them, I am doing fairly well. Check out what my kids do through links on my web page Ginjoe's. I teach US History to some incredible juniors at Sacred Hearts Academy, all girls school K-12, in Honolulu, HI (see http://newdeal.feri.org/eleanor/hawaii.htm ), and Asian Studies Honors to some gifted sophomores (see http://www.angelfire.com/hi2/asian/yesframe.html) . Truth is, I am a Great Plains exile living in Hawaii. Er, would you buy that I lived in Minnesota until I was seven on a farm not too far from Fargo? Three of my siblings were born in Fargo. (My wife was born in Korea, but has called Hawai'i home since 1964 -- deal was since she made a home wherever the Air Force sent us for 20 years, I would retire in Hawai'i because her family is here -- she clearly deserved that). Oh, besides teaching, I am advisor to 141 freshman. That part of my job requires that I follow them through until they graduate, do the proms, banquets, May Day (Hula in Hawai'i) program and much more including being a "safe" adult male figure for them. This is too long already so will close by adding that I am an inveterate Cleveland Indians fan (since 1954 when I was nine), a poet wannabe and I can cook. I can't wait to meet each you in person.
Mike Pekarek Centerville High School Centerville OH	I'm a full-blooded Bohemian from the Czech community around Wilber, Nebraska where as a kid I would cool off in the summer by sitting in the stock tank with my cousin Kenny and his dog, the slimy water up to our chins. When I was a teenager, my dad was transferred to Ohio, a place where people don't carry water to their trees. I still can't believe the trees in southern Ohio. There's a kind of gentleness in the land here; I relish it, but I live for the open skies, spending the better part of my summers roaming the Plains and restoring the decrepit family farm that my grandfather settled in the 1920s. My degree is English literature (Ohio State, B.A. 1971). I took my education courses at Wright State University and was certificated in 1972. I've been a high school English teacher ever since, and I currently teach English at Centerville High School, a suburb of Dayton, Ohio. I love architecture, history, V-8 engines, bluegrass music and windmills. I'm an avid reader, runner and Ohio State Buckeye fan. My wife, Susan and I live in a 90-year-old brick foursquare in the city. The place is built like a battleship, so we've dubbed it the Missouri. We have no children of our own, but we've been adopted by several of my students over the years. They often come home from college to visit and eat. Susan, who is half-Kentuckian and fiercely proud of it, adores the Plains for the joy of having wind always available for drying laundry on the line.
Linda Bellizzi Berkshire School Sheffield MA	I'm an east coaster, having lived my first twenty-two years in south central Virginia, my last twenty-two in the quietest corner of Massachusetts (bordering NY and CT), and some time in the middle in DC, California, and NYC. I talk a lot about our kids--Matt, Susie, and Ben--and our rot-lab Nato, who'll be staying behind this summer with my husband John. I know very little about the plains, even though my dad's family is from Oklahoma before it WAS Oklahoma, I'm told. Though I've had kids from all over the world in my twelve years teaching English at Berkshire School, I can count the number of my students from plains states on one hand. I've got a lot to learn.
Mary Thompson Stanley High School Stanley ND	True or False - The Morrill Act gave free weiners to the slaves. That's it, folks! That's the kind of humor people can expect from the people of the Northern Plains. I'm Mary Thompson, a life resident of North Dakota. Having read the bios that have come in so far, I must say, I feel a little like an audiovisual aid. One of my great grandfathers came to the US as a stowaway on a merchant ship, and served as a buffalo hunter for the railroads before he settled down on a farm near the Red River. Another homesteaded near Nash, ND (northwest of Grafton), and another was one of the handful of bachelors for whom Bachelor's Grove was named. - But that's not my story. I started teaching in the Red River Valley about a thousand years ago, and except for a move 250 miles to the west, not much has changed. I'm still teaching, and I still get goose bumps on my knees when a student masters a concept he/she has struggled to learn. I've escaped the state on several occasions, but have always been drawn back to North Dakota. There's something about swarms of giant mosquitoes in the summer... . Truly, there's a tremendous beauty in summer on the plains that's hard to leave. -And the sense of accomplishment that comes from surviving the intense snow, and wind, and cold of a North Dakota blizzard is actually exhilarating. I have a list of credentials and accomplishments that is reasonably respectable, but I also have a confession to make. Every now and again I feel hungry to learn something new, so I go out to find something new (to me) and interesting to think about, and that's where most of the list has actually come from.
Susan Mitchell Jefferson Middle School San Diego CA	My bookshelves are the best indicators of my passions and interests in life. There you'll find diaries from the westard migration, first editions of some of the great classics, journals and maps of the Lewis and Clark expedition, contemporary literature about national, state, and local governments, numerous books on poetry, sprituality, and Native American tribes, plus relics from my travels and important photographs of my children, family, and friends. The quick version is that I'm a mom, a writer and a reader, a political junkie, and an adventurer who has a passion for life!
Alex Dobrowolski Franklin High School Somerset NJ	Greetings, comrades! I salute you, you who toil before the blackboard! I've been toiling before that blackboard for 37 years. . . . A short Bio: Born in Poland,came to America at age 8 with my father in l947, rose to become a Business Teacher/Social Studies/Geography teacher/Dept. Head/K-12 supervisor/Social Studies Teacher in that order. Married 37 years to Joan now a retired, oft honored, brilliant H.S. English teacher who has been a tremendous asset to my personal growth and advancement. You'll meet her this summer. We have two daughters, one a second grade teacher. Passions, Interests, and Dreams: I've been running races for the last 20 years. The highlight has been the N.Y. City Marathon. I run between 20 and 30 races a year. For the last 22 years I've been officiating high school varsity soccer, basketball, and softball. Joan and I love to dance, travel, do Broadway shows and operas. We have a summer home on Maine Coast where for the last l8 years we've allowed no TV, books long walks, and local volunteer work only. In the near future I'd like to learn to fly and complete a works in progress book based on father's life in Poland between l935 and l947. He lost everything to German occupiers, survived as a drummer in a band and had adventures we read about. He saved me from Polish/Russian poverty and drabness. I look forward to meeting you.
Harry Sims Laguna Blanca School Santa Barbara CA	Here are a few details about my life in Santa Barbara in a somewhat random order. I've been teaching on and off in this community since 1967. Some of my first students are now grandparents! However, despite all my gray hair, I still manage to play a lot of tennis each week, and every night I walk my two Siberian huskies two or more miles. I'll be bringing my racket to Fargo in case one of you is also a tennis enthusiast. I killed my television about eight years ago, so I usually manage to read one or two books a week. I'm married to a primary grade teacher who is also an accomplished puppeteer and a nationally known consultant on school gardening programs. Judy will be spending three weeks in England and Scotland visiting puppeteers just before I leave for Fargo. We have two grown children: Casey is in corporate management with Toys 'R Us, and Amber is a sophomore at Santa Barbara City College. I just finished my tenth year at the Laguna Blanca School. It's a small but beautiful private school located in a neighborhood of $10 million homes. Every day I drive my battered 14 year old pickup three miles to school and park next to Range Rovers and Lincoln Navigators. (My other car is a 15 year old VW van.) At work I wear my standard issue navy blazer and school tie, but at home I'm just a Wal-Mart kind of guy. Small class size is the main reason I enjoy my job at Laguna. This year I averaged ten students per class. I am thrilled to be a part of the Great Plains seminar. I have driven across the country eight times, so I am familiar with the long stretches of open prarie, but I've actually never been as far north as North Dakota. I spent the first eighteen years of my life living in northern Ohio and southern Ontario. We moved to California in 1961 when my father sold his grocery business and bought a citrus ranch in Ojai, CA. At age 82 my father still works in the groves every day, riding his ATV or driving his '46 Jeep as he checks irrigation lines or tests for sugar content. Two of my hobbies are photography and wine-making. I'm currently working on two orange wines (using Sims Ranch valencia and navel oranges, naturally). Dry orange wine is actually gaining popularity in parts of Japan. My partner and I are bottling about four cases next week, so I'll be sure to bring some to the seminar.
Karen Madorin Ellis High School Ellis KS	Sixth generation Kansan who did not grow up in Kansas, but who has now spent half her life on the prairie describes me, Karen Madorin. Wife, mother, veteran English teacher, reader, writer/poet, traveler, outdoors person,and generally curious person would be terms other people might use to describe me. For a person who lets the words "What is the worst thing that can happen to me?" guide many of my choices, I have enjoyed many new experiences and faced several difficult situations. The bonuses of living by this motto are the amazing and wonderful people I meet along the way. Each one has something new to share. I never expected to live in Kansas during my rootless growing up years, which covered every state in the continental U.S. where an oil boom existed. The fact I ended up rooted in the middle of both of my families' home territory amazes me every time I think very long about it. What I have discovered living in the middle of section of wheatland, bordered by a wandering creek is that the land nourishes not only my body, but also my soul. I love every moment I spend roaming creek and pasture, and I am thankful for the chance to explore through reading, writing, and discussion this place I loved even before I knew it. Sometimes, we don't know where home is until we arrive. Some search forever and never find it, but thankfully I have arrived and recognized home in this ancient seabed we call the plains.
Ryland Clarke	I've taught at Collegiate School in New York City for the past twenty-five years. Before that I taught for seven years in public and private schools in Baltimore, my home town, and in France and Spain. My family and I love living near New York City. The town of Yonkers is just north of the city, and we can see (not easily) the Hudson River from our house. Our daughters now prefer NYC to Yonkers, a city of 200,000 that they consider "dullsville." After staying in Fargo, Jen thinks that Yonkers looks pretty lively (sorry, Plainsfolk). To be sure, she said this on the way back from seeing a romanticized view of NYC in "Keeping the Faith" at the Cinema Grill (the best part of Fargo to her, for she's not much on nature walks). I miss her and the rest of my family very much. At first my wife and both children were coming, but our younger daughter took a job in camp because she didn't know of anyone her age who was coming here. Still, I'm enjoying my stay thanks to Tom and all of you. I've joined Mike and Alex on the 6:00 am jog, though not every day. During the year I enjoy jogging as well as reading and going to as many plays, movies, and museums as I can afford(it's one thing to visit the city, but it's even better to live there). I'm learning, though, to appreciate the Great Plains.