- October 5, 2026
In her 40-year career, Joan Moyle has watched hundreds of Ormond Beach children grow up.
As a preschool teacher at The Children's Workshop, she has helped her students develop fine motor skills and achieve learning milestones as they prepare for grade school.
She's had a front-row seat to it all since she began working at the school in 1986.
"I've always thought, 'I would love to help children get into the reading mode, of course, and anything that's getting them ready for kindergarten,'" Moyle said. "... So I went from one room to another, to another."
Moyle was hired at the school as an aide by its founder, the late Marcia Grodi. At the time, Moyle's children were enrolled in the school. Over the decades, she has taught a variety of age groups, including ones, twos, threes and fours.
Over her 40-year career, Moyle has worked with about 600 kids. Her favorite part of working with children, she said, is seeing their personalities emerge and watch them progress.
"They go into the public schools or otherwise, and we hear back, 'They're from the children's workshop? Yes!' — because they know they're going to be a little bit farther ahead, I think," Moyle said.
Moyle has now taught multiple generations of students. Kids she taught back in the day are coming back as parents, and she remembers a vast majority, said Kim Adair, director of The Children's Workshop.
"Parents walk in as grown-ups and she's like, 'Oh!'" Adair said. "That's amazing to me."
Adair has owned the school, which is located at 506 Lincoln Ave., for the past 20 years. She took over after buying it from Grodi, who opened The Children's workshop in 1983. Grodi recently died on Aug. 9, and the school has laid a memorial brick in her memory.
Moyle also has one, honoring her dedication to the school.
Work ethic can be hard to come by, Adair said, but Moyle's is exemplary. In the 20 years her family has owned the school, Adair can count the number of days Moyle has called out of work in one hand.
"She is always here, and we just appreciate her dedication and the love for the children and the job," Adair said. "I think for most of us, it's not really a job anyway. ... We love these kids, and she definitely does."
Moyle said she has "the best job ever."
"Best director — two directors — and they have been amazing to us," Moyle said. "... My husband says, 'The day Marcia hired you was the day that changed and made our lives.'"
