First Grade

Joann Spear-Duffy, First Grade teacher

I was raised in upstate New York in the small town of Cambridge. After high school I moved to Newbury Vermont where most of my family lived. I started to work and met my first husband. We had two children, Amanda and Nicholas. I raised my children by myself. When we all grew up I decided to go to college to become a teacher. I attended Norwich University in Montpelier under the Adult Degree Program. All three of us were in college at the same time, and I only finished six months before my daughter. Since then, I've been working as an educator. I was a Title One Reading teacher at Lyndon Town School but my dream was to be a classroom teacher. I wanted to be able to teach all the subjects, and I started teaching first grade at Hardwick in 2005. I love to garden both vegetables and flowers in the summer and to snowshoe in the winter. I have and love animals. When I am confined to the inside I love to paint and do crafts. My favorite snack is dark chocolate and I have been to Hershey P.A. three times. But I don't go just for the chocolate; the scenery is beautiful!

Linda Kinney, First Grade Teacher

I grew up here in Hardwick and I attended UVM and Johnson State College. My career as a teacher began way back in 1973, and I've been with HES ever since. I really enjoy working on writing with my children, talking with them about their stories and giving back something to the town where I grew up. I enjoy asparagus, chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, The Indiana Jones Trilogy, walking on a beach, the color blue, and getting lost in a book. I've travelled all over North America - Utah, Arizona, South Dakota, Texas, New Mexico, Maine, Florida, Hawaii, Woodbury, Wolcott, and Canada - and I would absolutely love to see peace in our world.