I took an unorthodox approach to becoming a teacher. I attended the University of Michigan where I majored in Mathematics. Throughout college I spent all of my summers working with kids. I was a counselor for two years at a summer camp in Upstate New York and also led cultural immersion, community service programs for high school students– leading trips to Australia to live with a group of Aboriginals and to Dominica to stay with decedents of the Carib tribe, the first inhabitants of the Caribbean. After obtaining my degree I decided to spend a year doing environmental work with AmeriCorps in Portland, Oregon.
Following my year of service I found myself without a path– I decided to join my love of working with high school students with my degree and try out teaching. I was offered a job teaching the entire honors track of upper school math at The Good Hope School, a private school on St Croix, in the US Virgin Islands. It was during this year that I developed my loved of teaching, but after a year island life started to drain on me and I soon found myself moving out to San Francisco, where I landed with two duffel bags, no job and a two week sublet. After a season working at REI I was offered a job teaching at Branson School in Marin County. During my time at Branson I taught Geometry, Algebra II, PreCalculus and AP AB Calculus.
Teachers at Branson had a more traditional (lecture) approach to instruction and felt there was a better way to teach math, so I left to work as a private tutor. During this time I gained valuable insight into different curricula gained further insight into how different minds process material and how to best help students make connections between topics. After five years, my wife and I decided to start a family and to have a more “normal” schedule I decided to return to the classroom. I ended up accepting a job at a small independent school not far from my house.
Around our son’s first birthday we realized that we needed more space than our tiny apartment could provide. Since we couldn’t afford to move elsewhere in the Bay Area, we decided it was time to leave California. I was offered a job at Kent Denver School and we made the move to Denver. During my time at Kent I taught and (re)wrote Algebra 2 Honors, Precalculus (Regular and Honors) as well as AP Calculus. While it was a great, rewarding experience, my nomadic nature called for a change and once again, I find myself opting to tutor.
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