Professional Overview
My background as an educator is somewhat storied. I began my career in advertising and design, and transitioned into education as a Teach For America corps member in 2007. I taught secondary science at inner-city schools in Philadelphia since for two years – primarily grades 7 & 8, with summer experience in grades 10-12 with the Upward Bound program. As an educator in a low-income charter school, I have found many of the practices necessary to my success in business also critical to my performance as an educator. I therefore take an organizational and creative approach to classroom education that centers on incremental goals and continuous performance analysis, utilizing localized, context-focused problem-based learning and emerging technologies to maximize student gains.
As a result of the academic gains reached by my students over the last two years (nearly all of whom had never been exposed to science prior to the 7th grade), I have become increasingly convinced of the potential for place-based, interactive learning to facilitate and maximize pedagogical impact: in response to low levels of student engagement in science, I began implementing project-based, technology-focused instruction measures, leveraging new media to engage my students more effectively. As a result, I have been able to facilitate a level of student success previously unmet at my school. In my first year of teaching, my middle school students’ content mastery increased by a minimum of 26%: from roughly 60% of the previous year’s content to about 86% of the current. Student science process skills also rose from 7th grade mastery to a 10th grade level.
Since finishing my commitment with Teach for America, I have transitioned into Instructional Design, blending my love for technology, hefty experience with design and programming, and my desire to facilitate the spread of knowledge. I currently work for an organization located in Tampa, FL, designing and developing courses for several large colleges’ Internet-based education initiatives; we create online learning opportunities for adult professionals seeking certification in several fields of business.
Resume
Please find a version of my LinkedIn resume attached here. You may also view my account here.
If you are unable to view Adobe Acrobat files (PDF), you may download the free Adobe Reader here.
Recommendations
A few of my colleagues have been so kind as to provide me with letters of recommendation (education). If you are so inclined, you may peruse them here (letter 1), and here (letter 2).
Truth be told, these are somewhat outdated, as they are a.) primarily focused on my experience as a classroom instructor, and b.) several years old, but they serve as firm testimony to my working style – and are equally applicable to industry and pedagogy.
A View Inside My Classroom
The site on which this page resides also serves as my class website/blog. Through the navigation bar at the top, you can access our class notes, internet & video resources, games posted for students, and the occasional assignment.
In addition to perusing the website, please take a moment to video the video at the top of this page, if you haven’t already.
(While I have significant video experience, I chose to put a brief montage of student work together using the free service animoto – a tool my students use to make short videos for their own projects.)
Finally, a few images (many from the video above) of students engaged in traditional and technology-focused instruction in my classroom are presented below.
I hope you’ll enjoy them, we certainly enjoyed taking them!
A Look at My Work, Beyond the Classroom
In addition to this site, I also maintain a portfolio of design and development pieces which can be found at the following link: LEFT Designs. Please take a look – this work chronicles some of the memorable projects I’ve worked on over the last decade or so as a designer.
Contact
If you are interested in contacting me, the best way is via email. My contact form is available here.
