Hello Timberwolves!

I am Mrs. Kathleen Nealon and I am thrilled to embark on another year as a Trailside Timber Wolf! Originally from Long Island, I graduated from Queens College in New York with my Bachelor's in Education and then continued to get my Masters in Reading. I taught for four years in Maryland before moving to Loudoun County, where Mrs. Beichler and I taught second grade together at Meadowland Elementary. I took some time off to stay home with my four kids, but I returned to teaching nine years ago when Trailside opened. Shannon, my oldest, is now teaching in LCPS. Timmy has just graduated from JMU and just started his first job. Ryan is a junior at JMU and my youngest, Molly, is a freshman at VCU. 

In my free time, I love to read and travel. When Molly was younger, we combined these two loves and started visiting places that we had read about in our books. We have taken pictures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY with The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, in Times Square in NY with The Cricket in Times Square, and at The Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. with Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, just to name a few. 

What I look forward to the most this year is seeing my students every day, getting to know each of them, and hearing their stories. Their stories might be about summer adventures, camps, and sports. There might be struggle and achievement stories, family-together time stories, favorite TV show stories, and then there might be just everyday life stories. Each of the student's stories will give me an opportunity to connect with them and hopefully help me to put the right book in their hands.

Without stories, we are all just eating machines with shoes. ~Roald Dahl