EDUCATION

  • AA - Worchester-Wicomico Community College (general studies)
  • BS - Salisbury State University (elementary education)
  • MS - McDaniel College (exercise science & physical education), educational administration (AS1)


EXPERIENCE, CERTIFICATION & AWARDS

  • Fifth Grade / Deer Crossing Elementary School - 1997-2001
  • Seventh Grade ELA / Oakdale Middle - 2001-2008
  • Targeted Intervention / Oakdale Middle - 2008-2009
  • Career & Technology Education, Mathematics Intervention / Oakdale Middle School - 2009-2017
  • Career & Technology Education / Thurmont Middle School - 2017-present


  • Advanced Professional Certificate (APC) - elementary education, middle school language arts, middle school mathematics, technology education, physical education, Admin I
  • 2014 Frederick County CTE Advisory Council Outstanding Middle School Teacher, 2014 FCPS Teacher of the Year semifinalist, CTE Master Teacher


MY PHILOSOPHY ON TEACHING

Make school fun. If students have fun, they'll WANT to go to school. If they want to go to school, they're bound to learn!


HOBBIES

  • home improvements
  • hunting
  • fishing
  • golf
  • running (4x marathoner, 30x half-marathoner & 2x Tough Mudder!)
  • sharing my love of reading with my children and students


FAVORITE AUTHORS & BOOKS

Adult Literature

  • Nelson DeMille - The Lion's Game, Charm School, Night Fall, Plum Island
  • Tom Clancy - The Red Rabbit, Red Storm Rising
  • Vince Flynn - Term Limits, Transfer of Power, Executive Powers, Memorial Day, Consent to Kill, Extreme Measures
  • Mitch Albom - Five People You Meet In Heaven, Have A Little Faith
  • Khalil Gibran - The Prophet
  • John Grisham - The Testament, The Runaway Jury, A Time to Kill, The Bleachers, Playing for Pizza

Juvenile Literature

  • Jerry Spinelli - Crash, Stargirl, Wringer
  • Richard Peck - Here Lies the Librarian, The Teacher's Funeral
  • Anthony Horowitz - the Alex Rider Series (Scorpia is the best of the series), Gatekeepers series
  • Edward Bloor - Tangerine
  • Gordon Korman - Everest and Dive series
  • the Harry Potter series - terribly addictive
  • Suzanne Collins - the Hunger Games series
  • Marcus Zusak - I Am the Messenger


INTERESTING EXPERIENCE

My service to our nation, including multiple deployments, has galvanized the love I feel for my country and the appreciation I feel for the men and women who serve - our nation, our community and our schools. "You don't have to wear a patch on your shoulder to have honor." There are heroes everywhere.


FAVORITE QUOTES

  • "The hunter (who) chases two rabbits will wind up catching neither." -author unknown (find some focus in life, people might be able to do a lot of things but often none of them well).
  • "Courage is not measured by those who fought and did not fall, but by those who fought, fell and rose again." -author unknown
  • "It's not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves." -Sir Edmund Hillary
  • "The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them." -Mark Twain
  • "We sleep well in our beds knowing that there are men who wait in the night to bring (justice) to those who wish to do us harm." -Sir Winston Churchill
  • "The difference between screwing around and science is writing it down." -Mythbusters
  • "To invent, one needs a great imagination and a pile of junk." -Thomas Edison
  • "Fear whispered to the warrior, 'You will not weather the storm.' The warrior whispered back, 'I am the storm.'"
  • "The ladder of success is one that cannot be climbed with your hands in your pockets."