I first became passionate about history when I was in middle school. A teacher suggested that I should work on a History Day project and I chose the topic of integration in baseball. As I worked on this project, I began to interview former baseball players, read primary source documents, and put together my own media presentation. For the first time, history was living and active. As I explored the issues of racism, integration, and Civil Rights, I understood for the first time that history impacts our daily lives. We are the ones who live and breath history.
In high school, I had three teachers who introduced history in a new way to me. Mr. Allen taught me that there was more to history than what we know in America. In Ms. Bedene’s class, I learned how creativity connects to history. In Mrs. Wallers’ class, I learned the activist side to history, as we studied government. I began to question my own beliefs and develop my own convictions.
I chose teaching as a career, partly because I fell in love with history as a content subject. However, I also chose it because teachers have had a big impact on my life. This teacher also brought out my academic strengths and taught me to overcome some of my weaknesses. In college, I worked for Neighborhood Ministries, an inner-city non-profit organization. In working with a tutoring and mentoring program, I realized that I wanted to be a teacher.
I graduated from Arizona State University in 2004 with a secondary education degree. I have been teaching at Frank Borman Middle School for three years, and I have really enjoyed it. I love my job. In fact, I knew this was where I wanted to teach after doing my student teaching at Borman.
I have been married for a little over three years. My wife and I have two sons, Joel and Micah. Over the summer, the three of us spent a lot of time together. But I also worked on studying more history-related books and developing unit plans and IMPACT projects.
