Eventually, Debbie decided to make use of her elementary teacher certification indoors, and spent five years as a classroom teacher. But as they say, “you can take the teacher out of environmental education, but you can’t take the environmental educator out of the teacher.” While teaching at the Greater Brunswick Charter School, Debbie and her students beautified a park, maintained a 55-gallon classroom aquarium, camped at Allaire State Park, and propagated plants, which they sold to raise money for field trips.

She then became a computer teacher for Eatontown Public Schools, where she planted an ABC garden, started a tree nursery, and hatched monarch butterflies with her students.