Frank Zissis

Teacher of the Month

By Crystal Patriarche

If you were a fourth grade student – or any grade student, for that matter – you would want Frank Zissis as a teacher. Trust me on this one.

Lucky students at Chartiers Valley Intermediate School (for grades 3 through 5) in Pittsburg, Pa., know this all too well. For the last seven years, Zissis has taught fourth grade students – he teaches all subjects – and has made a lasting impression on them. How could he not? Not only is he creative, fun and cool, he is romantic (read on!) and genuinely cares about his students.

Zissis proposed to his wife, Ellen, a first grade teacher in the same school district, over the P.A. system at the school and held a special "kids" wedding where 65 of their students attended. The couple then held a reception for the kids at Chuck E. Cheese, where the newlyweds came dressed in their wedding attire and had cupcakes and game tokens for the kids.

This was a special way to include the kids in their wedding (they also had an "adult" wedding). After all, Zissis and Ellen began dating after they decided their classes would become pen pals. After weekly letters and a couple of class outings together – to ride amusement rides and attend a baseball game – they got to know each other better.

"Each time our classes did something together, we became better friends," Zissis says. "Meanwhile, my mentor had decided from the first time she saw Ellen and me together that we should be married and she wasn't shy about telling us we should be dating. She is known as a very persuasive person! Ellen and I were dating by the end of the school year and got married the next year."

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