My name is Kelly Formaggioni and I teach fourth and fifth grade language arts and social studies at Williams Academy. I was born in Hartford, Connecticut and moved to Athens, Ga the summer before my seventh grade year of middle school. I graduated from Cedar Shoals High School in 1994. I was offered a soccer scholarship to play at Lenoir-Rhyne in Hickory, NC. I graduated from there in 1998 with a degree in Human and Community Services and a minor in psychology. After graduation I began working for Project Challenge, which is an agency that does community service and restitution with juveniles that have gotten into trouble. From there I moved to the American Red Cross as the director of emergency services and then to The Department of Social Services in the Work First program. I have two children. Bailey is my son and he is 19 years old. Jessi is my daughter and she is 15 years old. When Jessi turned 1 year old, we moved from Hickory to Avery County. I then had the wonderful opportunity to stay home with Jessi until she started Kindergarten. The year she started Kindergarten I decided to go back to school at Lees McRae College to get my elementary education degree. From my years of working, I had determined that teaching and working with kids was my passion. It was a two year program and when I finished I was offered a maternity leave job at Newland Elementary teaching Kindergarten. After that ended I was hired to teach at Crossnore Academy. My first year I taught a K-2 class and the next year it changed to a K-1 class. I have now been teaching fourth and fifth grade language arts and social studies for the past three years. I recently completed my master's in elementary education from Western Carolina in the fall of 2017.