News Releases
 March
Employee of the Month: Marilyn Mocella, TPI teacher, Marion Jordan
and Lincoln Schools
Working with students of many nationalities from diverse backgrounds is the best thing about her job, according to Marilyn Mocella, TPI teacher at Marion Jordan and Lincoln Schools. “They teach me as much as I teach them,” she chuckles. “The kids are just terrific, and they learn quickly!”
Marilyn began working at District 15 in 1987 while her children were attending district schools. She started as a lunch coordinator at Winston Campus so that she could be home when her children came home from school, but she began to think perhaps she should put her degree—a B.S. in education from Eastern Illinois University—to good use. Six years ago, she started in the TPI position at Marion Jordan, and for the past three years, she’s also been seeing students at Lincoln.
Marilyn’s students “really enjoy her attentiveness and sense of humor,” her nominator said. “She spends hours planning individual lessons for each child. She gives them the tools to be able to perform in the classroom independently. Before long, her students have blossomed into English-speaking children.” Marilyn also reaches out to the parents of her students. She meets regularly with them to share each child’s growth. “She willingly helps with registering non-English speaking families on registration days and throughout the school year,” her nominator observed. “She is a very caring person with a heart of gold.”
Marilyn and her husband Bob are the parents of two: son Tony and daughter Beth. Last summer, Beth and her husband presented the Mocellas with their first grandchild, Karolyn, now six months old, and Marilyn is a delighted grandmother! When she’s not teaching, Marilyn loves to cook and bake, and for a time, she even had a small catering business. In the summer she enjoys gardening, especially flowers. She likes reading when she has time and spending time with her standard poodle, Monique. She and Bob traveled to Alaska two summers ago and this coming summer they plan a trip to Italy.
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