After 18 years working in the Averill Park Central School District, teacher Catherine Caruso is retiring this month.
While Mrs. Caruso loves being a teacher, she initially graduated from McGill University in Montreal intending to work in international business or international relations. For a short time, that is what she did, working in Miami before moving back to the Northeast where she worked in non-traditional higher education for several years. During that time, she earned her Master’s Degree in teaching.
“I didn’t actually get into teaching until I was 30,” Mrs. Caruso said. “Teaching is in my blood, though. My father was a teacher and my grandmother taught in a one-room schoolhouse in Owls Head, NY. I still have her school bell.”
Mrs. Caruso began working at Algonquin Middle School in 2002 before transitioning to the high school.
Over the years, Mrs. Caruso organized a yoga club and many student trips.
“We have a tradition at the middle school of taking French students to Montreal in 7th grade and to Quebec City in 8th. Amy Miller and I started that tradition and she continues it,” she said. “I also organized or helped organize trips to New York City for Spanish students; middle school trips to Costa Rica, and Paris and Barcelona; and high school trips to Spain and Costa Rica.”
For many years, she was also the Department Chair / Team Leader for Languages Other Than English (LOTE).
“My favorite part of the job is nurturing the connections with students that support their engagement in the learning process. A good day is when my students and I can laugh together as we learn. Fortunately, most of my days teaching are good days,” she said.
Mrs. Caruso will miss the connections that she has made with students and colleagues.
“I have appreciated every moment of my teaching career,” she said. “Even in those moments that were difficult, and there were those times, I learned something valuable that I could bring into future practice to make me a better teacher. I take enormous satisfaction in the work that I have done here.”
In July, Mrs. Caruso is relocating to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where her and her husband have had a second home for many years.
“We are so looking forward to living there full time,” she said. “I will continue to teach there. This coming year will be a time of professional exploration to figure out where I can be of most use. And particularly with our COVID 19 experience, public education the world over is destined to be very different next year. We must all be mindful of what is best to keep of the old, what is best to embrace in the new, and what we must let go. It is a terrifyingly exciting time to be a public school educator.”
