Michigan

 
Joan Elizabeth Garretson
Pleasant Lake Elementary School
4900 Halsted
West Bloomfield, MI 48323

Special Education, 3–5 		 
 

Click on the questions to hear Joan Elizabeth Garretson's interview at the State Teacher of the Year conference. You must have a Real Player to listen to the interview. If you do not have a Real Player, click on the Real Player graphic:
 
1) What is one thing that needs to change in order to keep quality teachers in the profession?
2)

Tell us about the teacher who meant the most to you when you were growing up.

 
 

Joan Elizabeth Garretson, 2001
State Teacher of the Year, Michigan
Joan joined the teaching profession, perhaps later than most, having experienced a tour of duty at the White House in Washington, D.C., while enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. For several years afterwards, Joan was trained and worked in the field of personnel. During her mid-thirties, Joan decided to pursue teaching, as it more closely matched her personal goals and vision. She has been teaching for the past nine years, working in Walled Lake as a self-contained classroom teacher for mildly to severely emotionally impaired students. Joan was awarded the Wal-Mart Foundation Teacher of the Year in 2000 and will receive the Annual Headliner Award from Michigan's Wayne State University in April 2001. Joan is completing her certification in Glasser's Choice Theory and Reality Therapy, and is a district trainer for CPI's Non-Violent Crisis Intervention program. Joan is married to Phil Berg, a freelance writer, and has two children: Elizabeth, 6, and Erik, 4.  
     

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