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.