Among this year’s retirees is family and consumer sciences teacher Mrs. Carr. During Mrs. Carr’s time in Wantagh, she spent 12 years teaching middle school home ec classes, although she says she always had her heart set on the high school culinary program. 

Mrs. Carr’s favorite part about teaching in Wantagh is the students and staff. “Entering the building each day brings smiles and greetings from nearly everybody I pass.” She says, “additionally, I feel our growing Family and  Consumer Sciences department is valued and appreciated.” One of Mrs. Carr’s favorite stories from her time in Wantagh is when the principal at the time observed a lesson she liked so much, she had Mrs. Carr write it up as an article and published it as an educational journal. “It was a Friday and I was going away with my family for the weekend” she says, “I spent the entire weekend working on this while my family enjoyed themselves…what was a difficult , unexpected task turned out to bring me a sense of  pride, recognition and brief acclaim.”

The biggest change since Mrs. Carr started working in Wantagh 23 years ago is the technological advancement. “Technological advances have brought about many significant changes in my teaching methods.  When I began my career at WMS, decades ago, each classroom was equipped with four desktop computers.” She adds, “My room also had a chalkboard and chalk! Look where we are now with Schoology!” Mrs. Carr says what she will miss the most is “my departmental colleagues and all of the great people with whom I have had the pleasure of working. I also know that I will miss the creativity component of tailoring  lessons that inspire students to cook.” Mrs. Carr says that she is most proud of the Wantagh Animal Rights and Recycling club and the developments made to the FACS curriculum in her time in Wantagh. She also quite humbly mentioned her gratitude for being able to go for her masters in special education. 

In retirement, Mrs. Carr plans on spending more time on her hobbies and interests. She enjoys traveling, hiking, sewing, and working on textile projects. Her love to travel will be satisfied as she and her family visit their home in the Finger Lakes. Mrs. Carr also showed interest in potentially developing a series of cooking classes for special needs individuals for if she ever decided to go back into teaching culinary. The Wantagh Middle and High School thank Mrs. Carr for all she has done in her time in Wantagh and wish her the best in retirement!