St. John The Baptist Catholic School

Bernie Viripaeff is our Kindergarten teacher. She grew up in the city of San Francisco. She holds an Associate of Arts degree of Science in Criminology and Early Childhood Education from San Francisco City College. Mrs. V. attended Catholic school herself for 12 years in San Francisco. She has attended a multitude of workshops in Handwriting Without Tears, Differentiated Instruction, Math and Language Arts for Kindergartners, Phonemic Awareness, and the “I Am Special” Self Esteem Builder workshop. She is an annual attendant at the “I Teach K” National Conference and has taken several classes towards her Basic Catechist Certificate.

Mrs. V.’s out of school interests are visiting with her family in the Bay Area, cheering for the San Francisco Giants, exploring the countryside and ocean areas of California, attending concerts, and discovering fun places to shop and dine. Her favorite things to do are travel, read, visit with old friends, surf the web for great Kindergarten websites, play tennis and racquetball, and hop on a plane to go to Hawaii. Her favorite places traveled to include Boston and New York because, “The people were great, the history fascinating, and the food delicious!” She has also enjoyed traveling to Australia and Napili, Hawaii. She has two children. Her son graduated from St. mary’s College in Moraga and her daughter graduated from USF with a Master’s in linguistics. She lives in Windsor with her husband and their family dog.

Mrs. V. has worked in Kindergarten classrooms for the past 17 years while continuing her professional training and earning her teaching certificate. Kindergarten holds a special place in her heart because children are so sincere and candid. Her goals are to help children develop not only academically, but also to help them achieve the skills that are necessary to develop emotionally, physically, and socially.