Meet Mrs. Toppel

This will be my seventh year of teaching and I am so excited to be teaching Kindergarten again! 

A Little Bit About Me: I moved to Portland in 2005 and taught preschool in a bilingual Head Start program until I started working for Tigard Tualatin School District in 2006 at Tualatin Elementary. I taught First Grade at Tualatin for three years during which time, I also got married. In the summer of 2009, my husband and I moved to Germany where I worked as a K-12 Support Services teacher at an international school. It was a fantastic experience to work in an environment where the students and families come from all over the world. While living in Europe we traveled to Ireland, Prague, Austria, and, Spain, Italy, London, and Amsterdam in addition to some fun cities in Germany. My husband also got to visit Madrid and Paris on business (lucky man!) I learned quite a bit about different cultures and strive to create a classroom and learning environment where all cultures, language, and differences are valued.  I returned to the US last year to join the staff at Durham Elementary and had a wonderful year teaching Kindergarten! I am happy to be back!

Berlin, Germany--December, 2009

Ireland (Cliffs of Moher)--March 2010

Austria--August 2010

Wearing a traditional German Dirndl

  I graduated from Villanova University in Pennsylvania (this is one Oregonian who is neither a Duck nor a Beaver!) and I received my master's degree in Special Education and endorsements to teach English to Speakers of Other Languages and special education from Portland State University. I speak Spanish and am working on learning German as well, but I am finding it quite a difficult language. I am also currently working on my Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction because I never want to stop trying to improve my skills and learning how to be a more effective educator.

I love to read, workout, cook, travel, do crafty things and write. While in Germany I also started working on my very first quilt.

Still working on it...but my teacher is back in Germany, so now I am on my own!

I grew up in Connecticut with a wonderful family and an older brother who is about to welcome his third baby in Februrary. He and his wife already have two daughters, Alyssa (2.5 years old) and Aubrey (1 year old).

Left to Right--Mom, Me, Dad, Brother Dan with Baby Alyssa, and his wife Shari

I hope as the year goes on we get to know each other quite well!