¡Hola y bienvenidos a la clase de español! Welcome to Spanish class!  I am Señora Griffin and I'm excited to be your Spanish Teacher at River School!  I've been teaching for 28 years and this is my 9th year at River School. 

I was born in Ohio but only lived there for a few months.  My dad was an officer in the Navy and our family of 7 moved every couple of years. When I started high school, we moved to Monterey County.  Some of the places we lived were Maryland, South Carolina, and Texas.  In California, I lived in Monterey, Port Hueneme, Long Beach and Salinas. I was even able to move to Europe and live in Madrid, Spain for a few years.  I really enjoyed my time there and grew to love the Spanish language and culture. Since then, I've traveled to and spent time in other beautiful Spanish speaking countries including Costa Rica, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.

I attended California State University Long Beach, where I received my BA and my bilingual teaching credential.  Later, I earned my Master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Chapman University.  I've had many different roles in education.  I began by teaching bllingual kindergarten for 8 years. Then, I went on to teach 2nd grade, taught reading intervention, and was an English learner resource teacher for many years before coming to Carmel River School to teach Spanish.

I'm married and have two children.  My daughter, Madison, is 27 and lives in San Jose, California and my son, Bailey, is 24 and is pursuing a music degree from Berklee School of Music. I really enjoy gardening, pickle ball, baking, scuba diving, and travelling.

I love speaking and teaching Spanish! We'll have so much fun learning the language and cultural customs of many Spanish-speaking countries by singing, dancing, playing games, reading and writing.  I'm looking forward to seeing all of my returning students and getting to know my new students who are in kinder and TK.  It's going to be a wonderful school year!  ¡Va a ser un año fantástico!