Ms. Josephine Monaghan is the new guidance counselor clerk for Paisley IB Magnet School. Before joining the Paisley IB staff, Ms. Monaghan was a teacher at several elementary schools across the county. She has taught at Whitaker Elementary, Clemmons Elementary, and Old Town Elementary, just to name a few.
Monaghan started her career as an accountant in New York City. There she received her undergraduate degree in accounting. While in school, she held a job at an accounting firm in the World Trade Center. After getting married, Monaghan faced her first career change. She remained in New York, but wanted a slower-paced career to better raise a family and fulfill her dream of working with children. In July of 1996, she received a master’s degree in elementary education. A few weeks later, she gave birth to her first child, Elizabeth.
Monaghan worked as a teacher in New York City for several years. On September 11, 2001, like most adult Americans, her life changed dramatically. She had just started teaching at a new school with new students when she received word that they were “under attack.” She remembers vividly that she was very much shocked and that it felt so unreal. Her first thought was that she did not know her students well enough to know who the parents were that were taking them out so rapidly. That situation made her extremely uncomfortable. So, after much researching and planning, her family decided to move to Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
The environment was very unfamiliar and different, but she quickly adapted. She continued her passion of teaching and working with children in Forsyth County. Here, she taught and substituted at several schools including the Children’s Center. She continued raising her family and spending as much time with them as possible.
Her third career change is working at Paisley as a guidance counselor clerk. She chose this job to return to having an office job as she did with accounting, to still work with children as she loved to do, and mostly to spend time with her son, William. Her daughter now attends the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill on a full scholarship studying Environmental Science. Despite working in an office, Monaghan still tutors children, kindergarten through eighth grade.
Story and Picture by: Kamille Graham
Pawprints at Paisley IB MYP 