A Letter to Students

Dear Students;

Allow me to introduce myself. I am three people learning to be an educator. I attempt to fully describe what I mean by that sentence because who I am shapes how I teach.

First, I am a person of high expectations of myself and those around me. I enjoy sports, movies, music, carpentry and a good challenge. I am honest, loyal and fun loving. I say what I do and do what I say. I am dedicated to you as a community of learners and will stop at nothing to make learning mathematics fun and interesting. On the same token, I expect you to be honest, with me and yourself, regarding your best effort to have fun while learning mathematics.

Second, I am a family man with two adult children and a loving wife. My son Vinnie is a cook and daughter Jessica is a scientist. I will speak of them often in class because they are a huge part of my life. Ms. McGrane, my wife and soul mate, is an attorney. She can charm the fangs out of a cobra one moment and scare the fuzz off a grizzly the next. Without her, I would not be here today.

Third, I am an engineer and a product of corporate America. I went to Northeastern University and received a BS in Engineering. I worked for Polaroid in the Electronic Imaging Division since 1981. We made computer-imaging peripherals such as scanners, cameras and printers. I enjoyed my time there. I was surrounded with very talented and brilliant engineers and the best toys, gizmos and gadgetry money could buy. However, times, corporations and people change. I put aside a software engineering career to make a bigger impact: teaching you.

I am learning to be an educator. Teaching is a practice, not unlike medicine or the law. No one is perfect; hence, we practice. In 1999, I received a master's degree in education from Harvard. I think like an engineer and am familiar with corporate life as well as academia. This has major ramifications on how I approach our time together.

I will treat you as valued employees and our product will be problem solving. We will problem solve in groups as well as individually. We will celebrate our victories and seek help on our confusion. The only failure in our classroom will be giving up. And “Failure is not an option.”

Communication, respect, integrity, teaching and learning are all two-way streets.

Peace,

Mr. Beck