NAME: Alice Marie Spence

TITLE: School counseling and guidance director at Lafayette-Winona Middle School

The most rewarding thing is that I have been afforded this awesome opportunity to encourage, empower, and develop people, whether they are students, parents, or staff members, and to solve "people" problems everyday through engaging them in quality focused conversations. This is my passion.

NPS is a living, dynamic educational system that involves all kinds of people with all kinds of gifts, talents, abilities, and skills, and that makes visible differences, not only in the lives of the students but also in the lives of its members every single day. The only thing one has to do is to consciously look to see the differences!

I grew up on a farm and I am the tenth child (the baby) in my family. I love gardening. I am only one of the ten children who graduated from college. I love people and need to be around them. I am a former U.S. Army commissioned officer and served 12 years on active duty. I have lived on three continents: Asia, Europe, and of course the great North America! I have visited 15 different countries. I am a motivational and conference speaker who loves to share about developing relationships through having quality conversations in any given environment. And I love writing and reading all kinds of books. I have co-authored a book that should be published in Spring/Summer 2011.

The first one is Mindset by Carol Dweck and Eat, Pray, and Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I also saw the movie, and I think the book is better.

I love to see students learn new material and get excited about learning. When LTMS was fully accredited this past year I knew it was because of the efforts of all. That sense of accomplishment and success is rewarding.

Norfolk Public Schools provides a quality education with so many learning opportunities. With NPS, mathematics is not simply skill drill, but we teach for long term understanding and use.

I love the outdoors . . . hiking, biking, skiing, gardening, and camping are some of my favorite things to do.

I’m reading The Life of Pi right now. My all time favorite book is The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. I recommend both books for the determination of the main characters.