DREW OPICHKA

3rd & 4th Grade Teacher (SCHOOL)

dopichka@scsjcluster.org

Mr. Opichka's Website

I’m the third and fourth grade teacher at St. Joan of Arc Parish School, currently in my fifth year teaching.  My time here has been amazing.  I love being part of the St. Joan of Arc family.  It truly is a blessing.
Growing up in Manitowoc, I attended St. Francis de Sales Elementary and St. Frances Cabrini Middle Schools.   I am so happy that I was lucky enough to attend Catholic schools.  Teaching is something I have always wanted to do; I remember telling my fifth grade teacher that I was going to be a Social Studies teacher just like her.  My hero, even to this day, is my third grade teacher.  She instilled me with my passion for reading.  I would not be where I am today, if it wasn’t for her.
I studied Education at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.  I was very privileged to get to student teach in Cuernavaca, Mexico.  I went to Mexico not knowing any Spanish as I minored in German and spent three months teaching English to third graders.  When I returned to the States, I student taught at the very same elementary school I attended with my first grade teacher acting as my mentor.  It made my education come full circle.
I enjoy traveling.  Not only did I student teach in Mexico, as part of Manitowoc Lincoln High School’s foreign exchange program, I traveled to Seligenstadt, Germany (sister city of Brookfield) the summer before my senior year.  My host mother was coincidentally a Grundschule teacher, which is equivalent to an elementary school teacher.  My three weeks there were amazing, and I can’t wait to go back.
One thing my students know about me is that I have a book buying problem.  I can never have enough books.  I can’t enter Barnes and Noble or Books and Company without purchasing a few books.  My classroom library probably has about a thousand books in it.  I, myself, personally enjoy reading the Harry Potter series.  One of my main goals is to have my students fall in love with reading.