About+Ms.+Johnston



 Ms. Johnston was born and raised in central Florida. She moved to North Carolina in 1978 and has been here ever since. She graduated from NCSU in 1990 with a BS in Zoology. Before becoming a teacher, she spent a number of years as a chemist. She has always had a love for science and nature. When the weather permits you can usually find her outside looking for interesting things to take to her classroom. Her approach to science education for middle school students is that learning is not just happening in the classroom and that we should always be looking for things to explore, investigate and incorporate into our lives to make us a better person. Consequently, her students engage in classwork which include lots of labs and hands-on activities. To hold the interest of her students, Ms. Johnston's has been known to use live specimens in some of her labs.

 Ms. Johnston has 4 grown children and one granddaughter. The older two are married and the youngest two are boy/girl twins, who both graduated from college in May 2011. She is owned by 2 dogs, TJ, who is a laid back male, and a female red Boston Terrier named Amber. Her other pets include a red-eyed tree frog, common to the tropical rainforests, and a bearded dragon, found in the deserts of Australia.