Often, high school students walk into class on the first day of school knowing nothing about their teacher except his or her name. I thought I would share some information about the person who is educating you for the next one hundred and eighty days.
Bachelor of Arts, St. Joseph’s College, 2004
Master of Arts, Stony Brook University, 2008
Twelve years of experience teaching at the secondary level
I have taught challenge, developmental, and zero period classes for reluctant learners. These classes are no longer offered at Sachem. I have also cotaught (collaboratively with a special education teacher) grades seven, nine and twelve. The 2017-18 school year will be my fifth year teaching collaborative classes. Additionally, I have taught 7R, 7H, 8R, 8 AIS, 8 Writing Workshop, 9R, 9H (eleven years), 10 AIS, 11H (in another district), 11/12 AIS, 12R, and 12H.
More than ten years working with developmentally disabled, autistic, TBI, and deaf/blind populations
Before becoming a teacher, I worked for an assortment of private agencies with a variety of clientele. My positons included crisis intervention counselor, community integration specialist, job coach, and management. As a crisis intervention counselor, my responsibilities included stopping developmentally disabled children and adults from hurting themselves, hurting others, destroying property, eloping, and other potentially hazardous behavior. My favorite job in this field was working with deaf/blind students at the Helen Keller National Center in crisis intervention. The children and adults I worked with were among the nicest, hardest working people I have ever met, and I got to know my favorite person of all time, a deaf/blind man named Joey.
Former Master-at-Arms in the United States Navy
I was a reservist with a job that is essentially the Navy version of military police. I trained to stand watch, control and monitor ECPs, detain suspects, respond to IED explosions and terrorist attacks, and of course shoot a variety of weapons under conditions ranging from broad daylight to ambient light to total darkness.
Other stuff I've done that made me a better person or caused me to learn something:
At one time or another, for a living, I have: washed windows, put up tents and other party rental accouterments, installed heavy telecommunications equipment, operated a street sweeper, stocked vending machines, worked for a beer distributor, been a chauffeur, and too many other jobs to list.