About Madame Macko

C'est ma vie!

My Bio

I grew up in a small town downstate. I am one of six kids.

I confess to being a language geek, but it wasn’t always this way! In high school, I was awarded a Rotary Club Scholarship to study abroad. I spent my junior year of high school – ten months – in Strasbourg, France, living with French host families and attending a French lycée (high school). It was during this year that my love of world language, travel and culture really blossomed.

I went on to study French at college, achieving a Bachelor of Arts degree in French and a Master or Arts degree in Education at the University at Albany. For many years, I was a businesswoman, working in educational administration, in particular for high school student exchange programs where I got to travel around the world and meet young people from dozens of different countries and cultures.

More recently, I worked for the University at Albany as office manager for the department of foreign languages. Working with and admiring the language professors there was one of the factors that prompted me to make the big decision to switch careers and become a teacher myself. I achieved NYS certification to teach French grades K-12. I still maintain good ties with my colleagues at UAlbany, which has enabled me to take advantage of opportunites of interest to my Mohonasen students, including their annual Careers with World Languages conference.

As my students know, my pet interests are career development and study abroad. I’m always stressing the advantage of knowing a foreign language – even if that language isn’t French – when pursuing a career. I have also established an exchange program here at Mohonasen High School through the local Rotterdam Sunrise Rotary Club for Mohon students interested in spending their junior, senior, or “gap” year abroad.

When not at school, I enjoy traveling, writing, listening to music and reading, especially history and biographies.  But my favorite thing to do is to just spend time with my family: my husband, our nine-year-old son and five-year-old daughter.

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