Windsor Hosts New Teachers for Orientation

The Windsor Central School District welcomed 17 first- and second-year teachers to the Windsor Central High School campus on Tuesday for new teacher orientation.
The new educators met district administrators, paired with teacher mentors, and learned about Professional Learning Communities (PLC), a collaborative, data-driven approach cornerstone of the district’s mission to make students future-ready.

“We purposely position this day before our full district three-day professional development period to give our new staff some foundations in professional learning communities and the opportunity to meet administration and mentor teachers so they have some background and get to know familiar faces,” said Barb Tasber, the Windsor CSD Director of Learning and Technology.

Among the cohort of new educators are a pair of WCHS graduates, Trista Evans (WCHS ’20) and Macenzi Stoeckel (WCHS ’21). Evans will teach kindergarten at Palmer Elementary. Stoeckel is a long-term substitute teaching 2nd grade at Palmer Elementary.

“The community is something I loved growing up here. Looking forward to the future, it’s something I want to be a part of, and the school is the focal point of that,” said Stoeckel.

“Obviously being an alum influenced me (to come back to Windsor), but the mission statement really pushed me here. Being future ready really impacted me and made me who I am,” said Evans.

Going from Black Knight student to Windsor teacher is still an adjustment.

“It’s so weird to adjust name-wise. I keep calling Kara, Mrs. Beattie. My team keeps saying, ‘Stop doing that, that’s weird. Stop doing that.” But if my mom heard me calling her Kara, she’d send me to my room,” said Evans.

Evans and her fellow Windsor newcomers will have another orientation on September 1st focused on setting up classrooms for success and instructional strategies to ensure learning for all.