Mrs. Chris Appel 5th Grade Long Beach School Room 141 (630) 636-3356       Welcome to my homepage!   I`m looking forward to a great school year! This is my thirty-first year in teaching, and I still look forward to all the things a school year brings. My students are the best part of teaching.   My Personal Background   I`ve been married to a wonderful man, Jim Appel, for thirty years.He was a teacher in this district at Thompson Junior High where he taught English  for many many years until he was asked to teach history, his hobby. He is now retired and building our future retirement home.    We  have two tiny toy poodles named Ginger Snap and Scooters which keep us laughing because they are so cute and do such goofy things.    For many years we took many classes during our summer vacations and weren`t able to go on many vacations. So now that we`re able to travel a little we generally go to historic places. My favorite of these is Williamsburg. We`ve been there five times.   My Educational Background   I graduated from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois with a B.A. in Education. After college I started substitute teaching in three different districts. One of them was Oswego where I fell in love with the district. The next year I became the learning center aide where I fell in love with Long Beach School, its kids , its staff, and its community. I started as a fourth grade teacher and after about eight years I moved to fifth grade and fell in love with that grade level and those kids. During my teaching years I took many classes and received my Masters Degree in Curriculum from National Louis College, now National Louis University.I now have fifty-six hours past my Masters Degree, which is a lot of extra schooling while teaching. I started my actual classroom teaching at Long Beach School and have been here ever since.I hope to stay here until I eventually retire someday. I love Long Beach!