Lori Joseph smiled, laughed, cried and screamed.

The only other times Joseph, of Mt. Lebanon, felt so overwhelmed were on the days she gave birth and got married.

	Alyssa Cwanger, Post-Gazette Lori Joseph in her living room with some of the gifts she received for her appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show": from left, a Dooney & Bourke bag, Sony Vaio laptop (with a picture on its screen of her at the Oprah show), an OfficeMax gift certificate, Burberry jacket, which she's wearing, and scarf, lipstick, bubble bath and hand cream. Click photo for larger image.

Her emotional ups and downs were caught on camera when she appeared on an episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Nov. 22.

Joseph, 33, a Bethel Park teacher, was one of nearly 300 teachers invited to be audience members for a show taped Nov. 20 that saluted what Oprah called "the most honorable profession."

Winfrey said on the show that she'd be teaching if she had not become involved in television and gave presents to each teacher. "These are things a teacher's salary can't afford," Winfrey said.

"She gave and gave and gave," Joseph said.

The gifts Joseph received included a Burberry jacket worth $335; a matching cashmere scarf worth $225; a 30-inch Dell television set, a Maytag washer and dryer; a designer sweat suit valued at $40; jeans; a laptop computer; a duffel bag; bubble bath; champagne glasses and a round trip for two to a Tucson, Ariz., spa.

Neither Winfrey nor the producers of the show paid for the gifts. Carly Ubersox, show spokeswoman, said, "Oprah selects these gifts as her favorites, then the individual companies are invited to provide them as gifts for the audience.''

Joseph was not interviewed on the show but she reacted so strongly she was photographed several times. A cameraman approached and told her, "Pretend that I'm not here."

"That's not easy to do," Joseph said later.

She and her two children, Marissa, 4, and Mark, 2, and 15 teachers at her school, William Penn Elementary, watched the show when it aired. School librarian Michelle Minnick ordered pizza for everyone.

Joseph brought some gifts that she and the predominantly female audience received and, as each was mentioned, she passed them around.

"Everyone was just as excited and enthusiastic as I was," Joseph said.

"I cried again."

She has always been an avid fan of Winfrey. In an introspective moment after her daughter was born, Joseph wrote a list of goals she wanted to accomplish by the age of 50. One was to meet Winfrey.

The first one on the list that she managed to do was to sky dive from 13,000 feet. "It was an exciting ride," she said of that feat.

Getting a ticket to the Winfrey show may have been harder. She e-mailed requests for tickets frequently and was considered when the show announced its teacher theme.

In her e-mail and phone interview with a producer, Joseph said she felt passionate about teaching. She had been inspired by her father, Jim Conrad, of Green Tree, a retired Pittsburgh Public Schools teacher. He taught at Brashear High School in Beechview for 35 years.

She also talked about the sense of humor she shows her pupils. She once noted that other professionals, such as lawyers, never do cartwheels while on the job. On another occasion, she told her class she would throw the word "can't" out of her classroom and tossed a sign with the word into the hallway.

On Nov. 15, she was asked if she could come to the show's taping at Winfrey's Harpo Studios in Chicago.

"I said, 'Absolutely.' "

She was asked to bring another teacher as a guest. She and her sister-in-law, Connie Joseph, who teaches fifth grade at Cornell Elementary School in the Cornell School District, had to show their teaching certificates, pay stubs and school photo ID badges to get in.

The taping of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and its sister program, "Oprah After the Show," which airs on the Oxygen cable network, took about three hours.

Her husband, Mark Joseph, told her before she left not to be disappointed if Winfrey was not as wonderful as she thought she was. But Lori Joseph was not disappointed.

Her husband had to work and couldn't watch the show with her, but watched a tape later and was as thrilled as she was.

Lori Joseph crossed off one of the goals on her list.

What's next?

"Riding in a hot air balloon," she said.