Department of Science and Mathematics Education
Alumni Connection: Letters
Back to alumni

Robin Whitton Meckel

From Robin Whitton Meckel, Earth Space Science Ed. '99

April 2006

I can't believe it has been so long since I last gave you an update.

I am still teaching 8th grade Earth and Space Science in Nashua, NH. I have been at the same school, in the same classroom since March of 2000. It was my first job after graduating and I really enjoy the school. It is the same school that Brendan (my husband) went to for grades 7, 8 and 9.

We are in our second year of an official "middle school". We were originally grades 7-9 until last year. Last year our district changed to grades 6-8. It was a tough transition for me (as well as the majority of our grade 7 and 8 teachers). Our new principal is very "middle school" and it was hard for us to adapt. This year is much better, I think both sides are finding a happy medium.

I finished my Masters in Technology in Education in May of 2005. I did my whole Masters program online though Lesley University. It was a wonderful program and I would recommend it to anyone. I enjoyed the online program since I could "go to school" when it was convenient for me. Since Brendan is away a lot (he is a pilot) the online program gave me time to work when he was away but spend time with him when he was here.

Besides teaching 8th grade still, I am the technology "go to" person at my school. I am in charge of our two mobile computer labs (signing out to teachers, professional development, upkeep and maintenance), LCD projectors and SmartBoard. I am also the webmaster for our schools website (it is a work in progress, I am still using the basic layout the last person created....I am not sure I love it but it works). You can view our schools site at http://www.nashua.edu/fairgroundsjh

I really love teaching 8th grade. It is never a dull moment! I have been using the laptops with my students to do activities such as webquests a lot since working on my Masters program. I have created a class website (I created it all using HTML code). If you have a chance check it out http://www.nashua.edu/meckelr . The Internet Activities link has all my computer activities I have created for my students. Many of them are webquests, and the students love them.

Brendan and I are still living in Nashua, NH. We debate all the time where we want to move to. Sometimes we consider moving back to Florida, ideally we want to live on the ocean. We have a place on a lake in central NH and I am able to spend my whole summer up there. It is perfect. Although when we visited Hawaii last month, we said we would move there in a minute. We have be lucky to go there for my February vacation for the past 4 years. Although this time, we were rained out. It literally rained everyday! And it is still raining there. We stay on the island of Kauai which is the island that had the dam break last week. We were lucky enough to see an endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal on the beach again this year (we saw him last year as well). There are only ~1200 left in the world and it is thought that between 15-30 live on the island of Kauai. I'm attaching two pictures of him (or her). He was so cute! One of the picture is of the seal and one of them is me and the seal (I had to be touristy!)

No children yet, maybe in the next year or two :)

I'm still holding out my dream of traveling in space. I hope the space program can get back on its feet. When they open the astronaut corps applications again, I will apply. I may never get there, but I will apply as many times as I can. I also would like to go back to school for a degree in Planetary Science (or something similar). I am really interested in exploring areas like Mars and Europa even if it is just from this planet :) Although my new interest is in SETI. My students love to learn about space science and their new interest is in alien contact and what we might find. It is so fun to get their minds going!

Well, that is my update for now. Brendan and I may be down the end of April for my school vacation. We were there last April and I stopped by a couple of times but you weren't in your office. We were able to visit Lisa and see Mackenzie! She is such a cutie.

Take care,

Robyn (Whitton) Meckel

Back to top