My name is Carol Perkins, and this is my tenth year at St. John Bosco School. I am just as excited about teaching here as I was nine years ago. I am looking forward to getting to know your children this year.  I have watched several of them as they have grown up from infancy. 

Here's a  little background information about me.  My father worked for General Electric, so we moved with his promotions.   I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, Cleveland, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.  I attended Catholic schools through high school. I received my BA in Elementary Education from ASU, and received my MA in Special Education from there as well. I have taken over forty hours of classes since then, many in the English department.

I taught Special Education and first grade in the Phoenix area for several years before I retired to stay at home with my own children. I was busy as a room parent, religious education teacher, Cub Scout and Girl Scout leader, PTO volunteer and officer, investment club member and officer, book club member, and Site-Based Council member in the Kyrene district. When my fourth child started Kindergarten, I started substituting. After a few years, I decided I wanted to get back into full-time teaching. The first thing I thought I would like to do would be to teach first grade again at a Catholic school, and, fortunately, everything fell into place.

I am married and have four children. I have three sons, ages 28, 26, 23, and a daughter, who is about to turn 18. I also have a little dog, Trixie. Daisie, a Yorkie-Maltese mix, recently joined our family.

 I believe that school should be a place where children want to be, and where they will feel safe, welcome, and stimulated to learn. My goal is that all of your children will learn everything they need to be successful second graders next year. I want them to have a strong foundation in phonics, spelling, reading, writing, grammar, and math. I want them to not only learn more about their religion through our religion program and weekly masses, but to get a strong sense of Christianity and Catholicism as a culture and way of life through example and practice. I want to foster their curiosity for knowledge, encourage their creativity in thoughts, writing, and art. I want them to know that despite what goes on in the world, God has given us many great gifts, and the world is a good place full of many good and wonderful things.

 It is important to me that we have good parent-teacher communication. I will send home the weekly newsletter by email, and hope that you will contact me by email (preferred) or by phone if you should have any questions or concerns about your child. My phone number at school is 480-219-4850 ext. 1019. I am looking forward to a great year with your children.