Dr. Joan Ruddiman is a teacher, as was her mother, her grandmother, and now her three children as well. As Joan noted, “Ironically, we are four generations of teachers, none of whom set out to teach. Teaching found us, and we found our passion.” The current generation encompasses the range of education as teachers of elementary, university, and adult learners.

Little Joanie certainly was familiar with the teacher’s world, having spent many hours in her mother’s classroom, usually reading in a corner while waiting for her mother to finish up her day. Then as a teen, Joan tutored with her mother, was a camp counselor, and substitute taught during college. It wasn’t until she began teaching in her own classroom did “Mrs. Ruddiman” realize that teaching was her passion.

She did know from her earliest years that she had a deep and abiding love of words: reading, writing, oration. Joan has memories of spending summer days and winter afternoons reading; of writing poems as a five-year-old and essays that garnered praise throughout her school years; of winning a high school oratorical contest and giving firebrand speeches in college.

Joan knew she wanted to major in English. In reply to those who asked, “What will you be?” she replied, “I will BE educated.” Her parents fully supported her, but encouraged her to “get certified so you can teach — just in case.” Such was the plan when she entered college at 17.

But another great love of her life created a dilemma. Joan’s college in Maryland proved to be too far from future husband John’s college in New England. Joan transferred north and happily had both a great school and a social life — until John graduated and began his accounting career in New Jersey. So, Joan transferred again and graduated from Douglas College, Rutgers University. Though she had taken a few teaching courses, the multiple transfers did not allow her to complete a certification program.

Three colleges in four years, graduating with a BA in English — with honors —was a nice achievement but did not yield a flood of job offers. But it only takes one, and St. Anthony High School was it. Sister Grace Pierre did not quite know what to make of this confident 21-year-old woman. But Sister Grace encouraged the newly-married Mrs. Ruddiman to develop a highly-relevant curriculum for Seniors taking their last English course — perhaps ever.

Joan’s respect for learners influenced her work with basic skills students and later, the gifted, developing, and advocating for innovative curriculum and strategies to nurture a love of learning. One idea, “The Vocab Game,” was so popular with her 8th-grade students that quite a few decided to take Latin as their “world language” in high school. This led to one of Joan’s earliest published articles: “The Vocab Game: Empowering students through word awareness,” The Journal of Reading, 36:5, February 1993, 400-401. Joan’s passion for teaching and learning motivated her to pursue a master’s degree — reading specialist— from Rutgers Graduate School of Education, and later, a doctorate in curriculum and teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Though Joan is delightfully surprised at being a children’s book author at this stage of her life, Dr. Ruddiman's love of words now carries into her books like Little Children, BIG Feelings that help little learners find “vocab” that expresses their thoughts and feelings.