Teacher Bio

Teacher Bio:

Colorado native, raised in Boulder,

Married and father of three, ages 17, 18, and 23.

Behavioral Science B.A. from Metro State University graduated summa cum laude.

Girls and Boys  - Head Golf Coach

Continuing Education:

             2023 - Advisory Board Member, The Mitzvah Project 

    2022 - Auschwitz - Birkenau Fellowship  Education 

                          On site educators trip to Poland, studying the Holocaust in Warsaw, Krakow

                          and at the Auschwitz - Birkenau Memorial site.

            2018 - Present -  APUSH National exam reader

            2017 - National Endowment for the Humanities seminar: NEH 

                          Impact of Modernity on Indigenous Peoples (Grand Coulee Dam)

            2016 - Gilder Lehrman Institute summer seminar at Stanford on the

                           Supreme Court

            2015 - Critical Thinking Skills seminar at Antioch University in Keene, NH

            2014 - Foreign Policy Institute seminar in New York, NY - FPI 

            2013 - Awarded two week educators trip to Turkey through the World Affairs Council and Turkish Cultural Foundation - TCF 

Awards:  Colorado Educators Voice Fellow 2015-2016

                Daughters of the American Revolution Dr. Susan Anthony Chapter 

                               American History Teacher of the Year 2015-2016

Work Experience: This is my 14th year teaching all at Arvada West.

Teaching Goal: I have introduced a Critical Skills program design into my teaching. Critical Skills will focus on experiential learning, collaborative learning, standards and problem based learning. Students will be actively engaged in creating the classroom environment, syllabus, and classroom policies. Students will experience the pressure of presenting their work in an atmosphere of a collaborative classroom community. 

Critical Skills has nine basic characteristics:

1 - Students will frequently work as a team.

2 - Students actively solve meaningful problems.

3 - Students publicly exhibit their learning.

4 - Students reflect on what they are learning and doing.

5 - Students apply quality criteria to their work.

6 - Teachers mediate, coach, and support the learning process.

7 - Targeted learning results guide culture, curriculum, and assessment.

8 - Work is interconnected.

9 - Students take responsibility for and ownership of their learning and for the classroom community.