About Me
I am a 62 year old computer teacher at a regional middle school in the lakes region of New Hampshire. During most of my twenties, I taught English as a second language to business people in Germany. I did most of my work for multinational companies. I also taught a class in American studies at Stuttgart University. On returning to New Hampshire, after two years of running a camp check business, I took a job as a manger for a photo retail chain. This eventually led to creating my own photography business that included a retail store, a film processing lab, and a studio. Fairly early on, I became interested in computers and their potential as part of the imaging process and as a tool to track business expenses. I also worked closely with local schools as a sports photographer and as a senior portrait photographer. I also had the opportunity to work on a couple of independent film productions and started doing more and more video work. My interest in computing increased as digital photography and video evolved. A local high school needed someone to facilitate a newly acquired computer lab so I accepted the challenge and my wife took over the principle operation of the business. When a German teacher left, I started teaching German and eventually got my first certification as a German teacher. My real passion, however, was not language teaching but computers, photography and video making.
When I saw the opening for a computer teacher at my present school, I applied and was hired. During my time there I have created a curriculum that consists of word processing, desktop publishing, spreadsheets, Internet research, simulation games, multimedia presentations, digital photography, and digital video making. I have also been the yearbook advisor, computer club advisor and media club adviser. I am now a computer technology Integrator and I am particularly interested in digital story telling, collaboration, on-line research, video making and student centered democratic education.
The purpose of this blog is to encourage myself to occasionally reflect on what am teaching, how am teaching, why I am teaching, and what I could do to improve, both as a human being and as a teacher. I am also interested in experiencing blogging as a participant as I see it as important form of communication. I also see the potential value of using blogs as a way to encourage students to express themselves, through technology, while using the traditional skills of reading and writing. I welcome feed back.
