Letters From Teachers:

• Acting to learn, learning to act
• Born to teach
• Passing on a positive impact
• Why do I teach
• Learning together
• Loving the subject and the students
• Leading through our commitments
• Small victories keep me coming back
• Hands-on interaction draws me to teaching
• Awsome students inspire me
• Myriad reasons draw me to teach
• Taking pride in teaching
• Rediscovering the world through students' eyes
• Students' self-confidence is greatest gift
• Making a difference

Nanette DiGerlando Daly:

Born to teach

As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a teacher. Every summer as a little girl, I would gather the neighborhood kids together in my back yard and play school with them. I was always the teacher. My younger siblings knew the alphabet and numbers and had been read hundreds of books before they entered kindergarten because I taught them in my spare time. I was born to teach.

I live in the community where I teach so I am always bumping into former students wherever I go. It is so rewarding to have them come up to me and reminisce about special events such as square dancing on Pioneer Day, decorating our classroom as a tropical rainforest, or dressing up like fairy tale characters and eating gingerbread cookies out on the playground. Some will tell me that the multiplication songs I taught them in third grade still help them in their high school math classes. The fulfillment of knowing that I have touched so many lives in such a happy and positive way keeps me going and anticipating each new class of students year after year.

My daughter, Danielle, is a child and adolescent studies major and a senior at CSUF. When she told me in her last year of high school that she was interested in becoming a teacher, I couldn't have been more pleased. I knew the only school she should attend was Cal State Fullerton. I am positive that she will be well prepared when she enters her own classroom.

After 24 years of teaching, I still love getting up and going to work each day. I love the beginning of each new school year and challenging myself and my students to do and be our very best. I can't imagine doing anything else.

Nanette DiGerlando Daly,
B.S. Child Development, multiple subject credential, '80, '81

Passing on a positive impact »