Getting to Know Mrs. H. aka Nana Huff
I was born in Raymond, Alberta, Canada in 1960. Yes, that means I'm old. I am now a grandma, so I can claim "old." Raymond is a small town between Calgary and the American border and I had a graduating class of 47 people. There are more people on campus daily than there were in my entire town. Because it was so cold and snowy and I really was not interested, I was not involved in any sporting activities beyond horseback riding and ballroom dance. My hobbies were mostly indoor activities. I spent a lot of time at the town library and also studied Elocution (speech, dialects, performance of poetry, solo scenes and reading aloud). It will not surprise you to learn I was kind of a literature nerd in High School. I took classes in Ballroom dance with my brother and learned Jive and Tango and Cha-cha and Viennese Waltz and Latin Hustle and ... well, you get the picture.
I attended Brigham Young University as an English major and ultimately got my degree from there. That is where I met Dave Huffaker, a fifth generation Californian. It was the era of disco and he was the only one who could keep up with me on the dance floor. I ended up with only one PE class that was not a dance class. I still prefer to get my exercise dancing rather than throwing a ball around. A few of years ago I took belly dancing. I have no illusions about being Shaharazad - just imagine the hippos in Fantasia and you'll have the picture. Since tearing my Achilles Tendon a few years ago, my dancing has been on hold.
At twenty-one I spent a year and a half as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Virginia and West Virginia and so, along with the other dialects, I speak fluent Hillbilly.
After I returned I spent a year at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta before marrying David and moving to Utah while he finished law school and then here to California. We have lived in the Castaic area since 1985. I have retained my Canadian citizensip, so I am a Legal Resident Alien.
My husband, David Huffaker, is a probate attorney (wills and estates). We have four children, three of them still living. Daniel is married and lives and works in Oregon. He and his beautiful wife Julia have a daughter and two sons. Richard graduated from UCLA as a History Major and is teaching English in China where he lives with his wife, Teide. Our youngest, Elizabeth, is married to Jiachen Liu and lives in Maryland. Our son Jeffrey died as an infant from Hib.
I went back to school after my children were in school to complete my AA in Humanities at College of the Canyons while doing transfer classes to complete my BA in English from Brigham Young University. I graduated from both COC and BYU in 2000. I eventually went on to get a teaching credential and an MA in Education through the University of LaVerne.
I did my student teaching here at Valencia with Mrs. Itaya teaching Honors 10 and then taught college prep tenth and eleventh grade here the following year. I was shifted to Canyon for three years but transferred back here to Valencia, where I have remained for the past fifteen years.
I discovered a few years ago that my children and I have Irlen Syndrome. My Master's Thesis was on the effect of Irlen Syndrome in the classroom and I have been trained to screen for that condition. I test students as a community service because I know what a huge difference it has made for my family.
I was born in Raymond, Alberta, Canada in 1960. Yes, that means I'm old. I am now a grandma, so I can claim "old." Raymond is a small town between Calgary and the American border and I had a graduating class of 47 people. There are more people on campus daily than there were in my entire town. Because it was so cold and snowy and I really was not interested, I was not involved in any sporting activities beyond horseback riding and ballroom dance. My hobbies were mostly indoor activities. I spent a lot of time at the town library and also studied Elocution (speech, dialects, performance of poetry, solo scenes and reading aloud). It will not surprise you to learn I was kind of a literature nerd in High School. I took classes in Ballroom dance with my brother and learned Jive and Tango and Cha-cha and Viennese Waltz and Latin Hustle and ... well, you get the picture.
I attended Brigham Young University as an English major and ultimately got my degree from there. That is where I met Dave Huffaker, a fifth generation Californian. It was the era of disco and he was the only one who could keep up with me on the dance floor. I ended up with only one PE class that was not a dance class. I still prefer to get my exercise dancing rather than throwing a ball around. A few of years ago I took belly dancing. I have no illusions about being Shaharazad - just imagine the hippos in Fantasia and you'll have the picture. Since tearing my Achilles Tendon a few years ago, my dancing has been on hold.
At twenty-one I spent a year and a half as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Virginia and West Virginia and so, along with the other dialects, I speak fluent Hillbilly.
After I returned I spent a year at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta before marrying David and moving to Utah while he finished law school and then here to California. We have lived in the Castaic area since 1985. I have retained my Canadian citizensip, so I am a Legal Resident Alien.
My husband, David Huffaker, is a probate attorney (wills and estates). We have four children, three of them still living. Daniel is married and lives and works in Oregon. He and his beautiful wife Julia have a daughter and two sons. Richard graduated from UCLA as a History Major and is teaching English in China where he lives with his wife, Teide. Our youngest, Elizabeth, is married to Jiachen Liu and lives in Maryland. Our son Jeffrey died as an infant from Hib.
I went back to school after my children were in school to complete my AA in Humanities at College of the Canyons while doing transfer classes to complete my BA in English from Brigham Young University. I graduated from both COC and BYU in 2000. I eventually went on to get a teaching credential and an MA in Education through the University of LaVerne.
I did my student teaching here at Valencia with Mrs. Itaya teaching Honors 10 and then taught college prep tenth and eleventh grade here the following year. I was shifted to Canyon for three years but transferred back here to Valencia, where I have remained for the past fifteen years.
I discovered a few years ago that my children and I have Irlen Syndrome. My Master's Thesis was on the effect of Irlen Syndrome in the classroom and I have been trained to screen for that condition. I test students as a community service because I know what a huge difference it has made for my family.