School office # 592-4200
My Voice mail # 594-7589
School email Debra.O'Quinn@pflugervilleisd.net
I am usually at school by 7:00am each morning, and I try to leave by 4:00pm each afternoon. My conference time is 1:30 - 2:00pm each day. If you have any concerns or questions about anything please contact me so we can set up a time to talk. I am looking forward to a great year! :)
Dear Parents and Students,
I am very excited to get started on another school year adventure! This will be my eleventh year to teach 5th grade at Timmerman. I have taught for 20 years now - that is absolutely unbelievable to me! I began teaching in 1988 at a very small school in Bertram, Texas. I lived in Liberty Hill and commuted the 9 miles to my 4th grade classroom for 4 years. I then moved back to the Austin area and found the drive to Bertram too time consuming, so I got a job with AISD teaching 6th and 7th grade math and pre-algebra at Burnet Middle School. After 6 years there, I was lucky enough to get a job at Timmerman. When I accepted the job I had no idea that Timmerman was the BEST elementary school in Pflugerville!! I love it here!! I get a chance to work with the best teachers and staff, wonderfully supportive parents, and the GREATEST children!
I was born at Bergstrom Air Force Base (before it became the International Airport it is today). With the exception of a couple of years I spent my entire childhood in Austin. After high school, I worked at a variety of jobs for about 10 years. I did everything from fast food, to electronics, to health fitness. I finally decided that I did not want to spend the rest of my life searching for the "perfect job", so I decided to go back to school. I spent my freshman year at the University of Akron in Ohio where I prepared for a degree in computer sciences. I moved back to Texas before I took my first programming class. That's when I realized that I did not really like working with computers!! (Of course, it was 1985 - computers have come a long way since then!) By this time I was also thinking of starting our family, and I still did not have a major. I had taken lots of math classes my freshman year in preparation for computer sciences. With all that math I decided to go into education - that would give me the best of both worlds. I could be with someone-else's children all day at work and still have lots of time to spend with my family (and have those summers off!) I received my degree from the University of Texas in Austin, and well, you know the rest. . . .
My husband's name is Ray. He is a plumber - commercial, new construction. He only does 'house calls' at our house! He is a football fanatic, and still supports his favorite team, the Cowboys. He also loves to fish for largemouth bass - enough said! (I'm a 'fishing widow' and a 'football widow', but I love him dearly!) We did not have any children of our own, but because he had a daughter from a previous marriage, I am a grandmother! I am "Nana" to Destiny, 12 years old, and Zack, 10 years old. They live in Brownwood. Ray and I live with two cats, Adrie and Camille, two parakeets, Lilly and Scrappy, and a spoiled black lab named Pepper. They all keep me very busy.
This is Destiny and Zach a few years ago on the South San Gabriel River north of Leander looking at some dinosaur tracks in the river bed.
In my spare time I garden. Nothing so useful as vegetables for me - it is strictly for enjoyment of nature's beauty. If I had a bigger yard, perhaps I would grow something more useful, but it's doubtful! In winter when it is too cold to be outside, I turn my attentions to decorating our home. I also sew and do some painting - not so much as I used to because of lack of space. Ray and I also have some acreage near Brenham where we spend a lot of time camping and clearing the land. Some day we hope to build a home and retire there.
I am looking forward to a fabulous year getting to know my new students. I have high expectations for everyone in my class. We will learn a LOT this year, and you will be surprised at how fast the year will fly by! At the end of the year I know you will look back on your 5th grade experience and realize how much you have truly grown!! Hopefully your last year at Timmerman will be your BEST!
People To People
I am a Delegation Leader for an organization called People To People Student Ambassadors and have traveled on their programs for the past 5 summers. People To People was started by President Eisenhower in 1956 as a way for young people to learn more about the world around them. He believed that if we knew more about each other our world would be a better place to live. He enlisted the help of Walt Disney, Jesse Owens, Bob Hope, and Joyce Hall (of Hallmark Cards) to begin the organization whose mission is to promote world peace through understanding. Through out the year I look for students who show enthusiasm for the world around them and/or who show leadership qualities. I nominate those that I think would be good candidates for People To People programs. I have had the opportunity to travel with People To People to Greece, Italy, France, Malta, Belgium, Holland, England, Wales, Ireland, Canada, and Australia. If you would like to know more about People To People their website is www.studentambassadors.org
Below are some pictures from this past summer's program to Greece and Italy.
Halfway up the hillside to the Parthenon, Athens, Greece. The Parthenon was the temple built for Athena, goddess of wisdom.
Our tour guide from Archelon, The Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece, showing us how they mark sea turtle nests for protection from tourists and other predators.
(Left to right): Me, Madison, Kalli, and Joseph (all former Timmerman students) at the Oracle of Delphi in Greece.
Yes, that's me about to cross the finish line in my 'record setting' race at the original Olympic Stadium. The first Olympic games were held here in 776 BC! They still light the torch here for the games. It is then carried to all countries around the world.
They say if you toss a coin in the Trevi Fountain, in Rome, Italy, and make a wish, it will come true! Can you guess what I wished for?
Me in front of St. Peter's Basilica, the largest church in the world, in Vatican City where the Pope lives.
The Canal of Korinthos was dug in 1918 through the isthmus connecting the mainland of Greece to the peninsula of Peloponnes. The canal is 10 miles long and it is a 200 foot drop to the water! An American sailboat just happened to be passing while we were on the bridge. (Do you know the underlined geography terms?)
Student Ambassadors learning to make goat cheese at Dolci Pascoli in the mountains of Sicily. Yummmmy!!
Hiking up Mt. Etna in Sicily. Yes, it is smoking because it is still very active. We hiked to the crater of the 2002 eruption which buried a 2 story hotel with its lava flow!
This is Pompeii's city wall from the outside. Enough ash fell from the 79 AD eruption of Mt. Vesuvius to bury the city to a height of 21 feet above the top of the wall!!
This is the Coliseum in Rome, Italy. According to our tour guide, the gladiators and slaves that fought here were never "thrown to the lions" - that is pure Hollywood!
I saved my favorite place for last. This is the Temple of Segesta in the middle of nowhere in Sicily, Italy. It was built by the Greeks in 430 BC, but never finished. Over time it was covered by sediment and forgotten. In the late 1700s work began to restore it.
