AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Ten years ago, I never dreamed of becoming a teacher. For fifteen years, I was gainfully employed for Calgon Corporation in technical sales and service involving specialty chemicals. Unfortunately, I lost this job due to a merger. My entire company was literally absorbed and gradually dismantled by a larger company. After some serious soul searching, I decided to go back to school and pursue another advanced degree.
After graduating, I was pleased to accept an Adjunct Professor job at Mesa Community College and later at Chandler-Gilbert Community College. I am now going on nine years teaching Economics and Mathematics. I have taught nine different subjects. Currently, I am teaching Principles of Macroeconomics and Principles of Microeconomics on the Internet for Mesa Community College. I also teach Mathematics (Advanced Algebra and Basic Geometry) full-time at Holbrook High School located in Holbrook, Arizona. This is my fourth year teaching at the secondary level.
Over the past nine years, I have increasingly become an effective teacher due to a great sense of humor, vast experience as a student, mastery of subject matter, a delightful personality, and quick embracement and use of technology including SMARTBOARDS and STUDENT RESPONSE SYSTEMS. I also have learned to establish classroom environments that are safe, trusting, respectful, firm yet friendly, and with outstanding development teacher-student relationships. My patience and temperance have increased dramatically over the years.
In addition to being a student for over twenty-five years, I have great empathy for students from all walks of life. In addition to experiencimg a divorce by parents at age three, a father’s death at age ten, and moving around from one relative to another while growing up, I have lived in thirteen states, traveled in forty five, and have visited fifteen countries. Currently, my classrooms at Holbrook High School consist of nearly eighty percent Native American’s and many students who live in homes with incomes below the poverty level.
