I hope that you have had a wonderful summer vacation and are ready to start your year at McKinley. I am so excited for my sixth year at McKinley. Before I joined this awesome team I taught fourth grade at Jefferson School in Summit for thirteen years and was one of the assistant baseball coaches for Summit High School.
I grew up in Westfield and currently still live in town with my wife Megan, our nine year old daughter Mackenzie (who is also starting 4th grade this year), our four year old daughter Madison and our crazy dog Maverick. In my spare time, I love to woodwork, play golf and race bikes. When not in school, my family and I love spending time at our house in LBI or up in Burke, Vermont and of course at the Memorial Pool.
Our classroom will be a safe place where we will work to develop the skills and knowledge for you to become independent life-long learners, ethical citizens, critical thinkers, problem solvers, and collaborative workers. We will work together to instill grit and a strong work ethic by setting personal and academic goals and learning from our failures.
In the classroom, I love to infuse exciting and innovative projects to connect our learning. Over the last few years, I incorporated Ozobots for coding, PinBox3000’s (which are actual working pinball games made out of cardboard), 3D cardboard topographic maps, popsicle stick bridges and weekly S.T.E.A.M challenges. I can’t wait to bring these collaborative projects to our room this year.
In addition to hands on projects in our content areas, I am excited to get to know each of you as readers, writers and math students. We will work on our units of study ranging from realistic fiction, reading and writing nonfiction and going back in time while we navigate historical fiction. Additionally, we will craft argument essays, dive deep into the realm of fantasy stories, develop literary essays, conduct an author study and develop memoirs.
I am so excited for our year together where we can continue to Grow our Hearts, Our Minds and our Circles! Learn Like A Champion!