Ms. Pearce-Fitzsimmons, better known as Ms. Fitz, is loved by many of the students and has been working here at Coronado for 21 years; although, this is actually her 32nd year total working in education! After all this time, she decided she will be retiring this year.

Since she’s been in the teaching industry for a while, she must’ve had many influences on her career, but here at Coronado she said her students were her biggest influence. She teaches English, so of course those classes had to be her favorites. People might assume the writing was her favorite part, but she said, “most of my memories are from great short stories, poems, and art projects that students wrote and created as assignments for the English classes I taught.”

Ms. Fitz also enjoyed being the Student Government Advisor: “Student Government was a wonderful experience for me as I TOTALLY enjoyed working with students outside of the academic classroom. This organization helped me to make some life-long friendships with many of my students.”

Ms. Fitz also explained her experiences of change at Coronado over the years saying, “In my opinion, teaching has not changed much…the skill of reading is still reading, and the skill of writing is still writing…but students have changed…It is an ever-changing environment…no school year is the same. There is always something interesting happening in Cougarville!” Change is inevitable, so her reminder for teachers still working as well as students was to “Be flexible…don’t sweat the small stuff.”

She is sure to be looking forward to her retirement, which includes the new freedoms and free time. She is still unsure about how exactly she is going to spend her newfound time: “Gosh, I am uncertain about this at the moment. I guess I would hope to travel some and spend more time with my family, nothing firmed up yet. Still looking for a new journey.” Ms. Fitz will be missed next fall by many students and staff!