As anyone who’s tried to navigate the two stories of Ranney House knows, it’s easy to get lost. On the way to my interview with Ms. Peacore, I find myself disoriented on the balcony of Ranney House. I see my 6th grade Math teacher, Mx. Brownsmith, who tells me the direction I should be going, and asks me a question: “What are you doing here?” I tell them that I’m on my way to interview Ms. Peacore and am met with a bright smile. “I love her. She’s so great,” they say.

Ms. Linda Peacore, mother of Caroline Peacore ’20 and Grace Peacore ’17, joins the Lower School faculty this year as the 6th grade History Teacher. After working for five years as the Special Project Manager at the University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy, Ms. Peacore is elated to continue her teaching career, this time at the elementary level. When she first got the call that Westridge was interested in employing a new history teacher, she thought, Oh, I’d love that for 6th grade.

Ms. Peacore appreciates Westridge’s focus on each of its students, and hopes to employ that in her classroom. She remembers how she felt during a friend’s daughter’s 8th grade recognition: “I thought it was so cool because they talked about each student individually.” As she was not a Westridge parent at this time, this focus on students as individuals was one of the first things that drew her to Westridge, both as a parent and now as a teacher. 

Outside of school, Ms. Peacore loves to travel with her daughters, read, and watch sports with family. Since her childhood, she has reluctantly appreciated American football. “I like football. I’m kind of ashamed that I do…but I can’t break away.” Now that her daughters are out of the house, Ms. Peacore’s football-watching partners have been reduced to her three pets: dogs Ollie and Teddy, and Leo, a kitten. 

For the first time as a teacher, Ms. Peacore expressed her thought process on Convocation. “I thought, ‘What am I doing here? I should only be here if my daughters are here.’ But it was really fun.” Throughout Convocation, her first time back at Westridge, Ms. Peacore remembered all of her memories from previous moments with her daughters. When asked about other faculty, Ms. Peacore said, “They’ve been so nice because they remember me as a parent.” While many of Ms. Peacore’s memories with Westridge revolve around being a parent, she is elated to make new ones as a teacher.

In her next years at Westridge, she hopes to participate in all school events and anticipates that 6th graders will be excited for special projects she is reviving, including 6th grade Humanities Teacher Christine Kiphart’s Wax Museum and Greek Day, a day where students can create identities as ancient Greek people and explore ancient Greece in a hands-on way. Ms. Peacore hopes to “build her own” and establish a good relationship with each of her students before starting to make changes in the History curriculum.

Throughout her first year teaching at Westridge, Ms. Peacore intends to explore all possible paths for teaching the 6th grade History curriculum to further plans for following years, as well as build bonds with her students. Ms. Peacore empathizes with her students and hopes they can talk to her if they encounter any difficulty throughout the year, saying: “We’re in this together.”