I like Open School because I like teaching math and I really like the personal relationships that I have with the kids. I've been here since 2002, which was also my first year as an educator.
My favorite thing to do at Open School is to play Yu-Gi-Oh cards with the kids. Outside of school I like to work out, work on my house, work my other job. My other job is being a program counselor at a group home for developmentally disabled adults.
I get my best ideas when I am mowing the lawn.
I became a teacher because I was sick of being a student, and since I liked teaching, I became a teacher. Someday I will probably go back to being a student again. Later in life I would like to be a physics professor at a college or university.
The best class I ever took was a combination between a laboratory computing class and a continuous applied math class. In that class I got to work with Fourier Trans forms. With Fourier Transforms a computer can do huge amounts of multiplications in a very short amount of time. The personal computer is the most important technological advancement of my lifetime.
An event that changed my life was when I got to do research on Transparent Conducting Oxides (TCO). TCO's, such as zinc oxide, are used to control the amount of light that reaches an object, for example a solar panel.
The hardest part about my childhood was when my parents got divorced and my mother married an abusive step-father. Fortunately, that situation only lasted for a short time. It was also difficult several years later when I was fifteen and I had to leave home to live on my own.
My parents always taught me about the value of education. My favorite teacher was Mr. Wicker, my high school math teacher. He taught me that it wasn't good enough to just be smart, that you also had to work hard as well.
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