During a new year with many new faces, Ms Stephanie Quinn is one of the many new faces at Salisbury Elementary. With her bright smile and warming presence she brings many new strengths to the table for the 5th grade class.  

But she is not alone. The 5th grade team is full of fresh faces all from different grades at the school and they are all navigating this year together. Ms Quinn’s story is one that you wouldn’t want to miss.

From a young age Ms Quinn knew she wanted to work with kids. 

“At family parties and cookouts I was always watching the younger cousins,” she said

But what really made her want to become a teacher was her younger brother who was diagnosed with aspergers when they were kids. Growing up she looked after him and in a way coached him throughout his school career, and realized that the help for kids with special needs was sparse. Quinn knew that special education was where she wanted to start her career.  She achieved her bachelors degree in special education teaching at the University of South Florida and then went on to get her masters degree at Cambridge College in Boston. After graduating with her masters she was a long term substitute teacher at a middle school in Boston, which is where she really fell in love with teaching. Later on she became a special education teacher at one of  Triton’s neighboring schools. 

“Unfortunately I didn’t have a welcoming experience and it is unfortunate,”

Over the summer Ms Quinn had an interview with some of the returning Salisbury Elementary School staff. There she spoke with her now mentor Ms Donovan. We got to speak with her and she had only great things to say about Ms Quinn 

“She was a no-brainer, she has great experience already and with her background in special education she adds great skills to the 5th grade team,” said Donovan. She expressed how awesome it was to have the opportunity to hire someone for their team with such amazing experience and patience for kids like she has. 

Quinn has exciting plans for this year and we even got to talk to some of her students to see how this year has been going so far.

“ELA is my favorite subject, she helps me write paragraphs,” said one of her students 

“My favorite thing about her class was learning about the BC and BCE,” said another. 

Ms Quinn has big plans for this year she said her favorite part about teaching is being able to connect with her students