Education
Michigan State University, Doctorate (2020-present), Educational Leadership
University of California Santa Barbara (2018-2019), GC Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)
Purdue University (2015-2017) Master of Science, Special Education
The University of Michigan (2012-2013) Master of Art, Educational Studies
Eastern Michigan University (1991-1994) Business Administration, Finance
Michigan State University, Doctorate (2020-present), Educational Leadership
University of California Santa Barbara (2018-2019), GC Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)
Purdue University (2015-2017) Master of Science, Special Education
The University of Michigan (2012-2013) Master of Art, Educational Studies
Eastern Michigan University (1991-1994) Business Administration, Finance
Current and Past Work Experiences in Education:
Centria Autism
Education Consultant
Concordia University Special Education Department Director
Concordia University Special Education Educator (Graduate/Undergraduate)
AAPS Education Facilitator
JPS Special Education Teacher (Self Contained EI/ASD/LD)
Wayne Westland Social Studies Teacher (Economics/Political Science/Civics)
Long term substitute AAPS
Centria Autism
Education Consultant
Concordia University Special Education Department Director
Concordia University Special Education Educator (Graduate/Undergraduate)
AAPS Education Facilitator
JPS Special Education Teacher (Self Contained EI/ASD/LD)
Wayne Westland Social Studies Teacher (Economics/Political Science/Civics)
Long term substitute AAPS
My Coaching Philosophy
PLAY HARD! HAVE FUN!
For all those who know me, and those who do not, this is my coaching philosophy in a nut shell. My only caveat is winning and losing are completely not relevant to me.
But what does this mean
PLAY HARD!
I believe there are several ways to play hard. However, the most important of them is to give it your best. I often ask the players, as they leave the field, “did you do your best?” “Could you have done something better today?” or “how could you have improved your performance?”
Secondly, I find myself telling my players if they cheat, they are only cheating themselves. It they cut the corner or do not run as fast as they can, it is themselves they are letting down, not me.
I expect complete honesty. Sports are a metaphor for life. We win and we lose. A good citizen knows how to deal with both the wins and the losses gracefully. If a person is dishonest in a simple game, they tend to be dishonest whenever life becomes challenging.
Learn what ever you can, from whomever you can and never be afraid to try new things. The only way you can learn is through trying. One of my favorite sayings is “the answer is always no until you ask”. It is ok if you can not do it now, keep trying and eventually you will be successful. Trying to do something is the best way to learn how it is done.
Try – Learn – Play
HAVE FUN!
Any sports activity can turn an adult into a child again, so why do we try to turn the children playing the sport into adults? Expectations are often unrealistic and in many cases detrimental to the growth and well being of our children. We need to let them play and have fun. They must be able to be kids! To make mistakes and learn from them. They must be encouraged to use their imagination in order to problem solve and create new ways for the solving of problems.
When an educational environment is converted into a fun environment, learning happens and time flies. Both the teacher and the student enjoy the experience, creating anticipation for the “next time” producing a desire to “learn” more.
My expectations are quite simple, give your best effort, try new things, do not worry about who wins or loses and have fun. To this end, I would not ask anyone to do something I would not do myself.
PLAY HARD! HAVE FUN!
For all those who know me, and those who do not, this is my coaching philosophy in a nut shell. My only caveat is winning and losing are completely not relevant to me.
But what does this mean
PLAY HARD!
I believe there are several ways to play hard. However, the most important of them is to give it your best. I often ask the players, as they leave the field, “did you do your best?” “Could you have done something better today?” or “how could you have improved your performance?”
Secondly, I find myself telling my players if they cheat, they are only cheating themselves. It they cut the corner or do not run as fast as they can, it is themselves they are letting down, not me.
I expect complete honesty. Sports are a metaphor for life. We win and we lose. A good citizen knows how to deal with both the wins and the losses gracefully. If a person is dishonest in a simple game, they tend to be dishonest whenever life becomes challenging.
Learn what ever you can, from whomever you can and never be afraid to try new things. The only way you can learn is through trying. One of my favorite sayings is “the answer is always no until you ask”. It is ok if you can not do it now, keep trying and eventually you will be successful. Trying to do something is the best way to learn how it is done.
Try – Learn – Play
HAVE FUN!
Any sports activity can turn an adult into a child again, so why do we try to turn the children playing the sport into adults? Expectations are often unrealistic and in many cases detrimental to the growth and well being of our children. We need to let them play and have fun. They must be able to be kids! To make mistakes and learn from them. They must be encouraged to use their imagination in order to problem solve and create new ways for the solving of problems.
When an educational environment is converted into a fun environment, learning happens and time flies. Both the teacher and the student enjoy the experience, creating anticipation for the “next time” producing a desire to “learn” more.
My expectations are quite simple, give your best effort, try new things, do not worry about who wins or loses and have fun. To this end, I would not ask anyone to do something I would not do myself.
Teaching Philosophy
As a teacher of teachers, I would argue that teaching is a function of moral imperatives. In many cases programming and professors teach pre-service educators to build their curricula as a reflection of the standards and or expectations for which they will be beholden to, or more to the point, how they as teachers will be evaluated. I would offer this process, instead of bolstering student learning to its greatest degree, instead creates a modified “teaching to the test” scenario for teachers. In my experience, and under the current system, the pre-service educator is beholden to a corporatist like model that focuses mostly on the bottom-line and or tax payer accountability. While these are obviously very important to the overall health of the educative environment these types of ideologies tend to turn the focus away from what or how learning is taught and squarely focuses more on a result that is based on the educator as opposed to the student. Effectively, it could be argued that under the current educative system, the focus in placed on “proving we are teaching” as opposed to “are the students actually learning”. In my opinion, the former is not what education should be about. Too often, we have taught pre-service teachers to focus on themselves, while the students are certainly part of the equation, but we must ensure that the students’ learning is never compromised regardless of the cacophony of competing priorities that can comprise the current educational system. In my classroom, I will endeavor to prepare my pre-service teachers for educative environments which are comprised of learners seen as individuals who consume learning in their own way and who carry with them their own unique experiences, cultures, expertise, and knowledge. Throughout my instruction, lessons will cater to those individuals and will require them to be self-reflective and to provide ongoing opportunities in which pre-service teachers will make pedagogical decisions based on how they conceptualize learning with their own students. My overarching goal is to synergize theory and practice while paying close attention to the central tenants of language, experience, individualization, and sustainability. I believe that good teaching is born out of theory which is foundational to governing one’s practice. However, it is important to not base curricula simply on the theory of teaching. In my classroom, I teach future educators to draw upon self-reflection, personal experience, and theories on literacies and personhood, and to then determine what strategies, activities, and assessments best represent what was actually learned as opposed to what was expected to be learned. I teach my students to recognize that the classroom is not a group of students but instead the classroom is comprised from a group of individual learners who all have different strengths and weaknesses, background knowledge, cultures, and experiences, and that those all play a role in how best to teach them.
As a teacher of teachers, I would argue that teaching is a function of moral imperatives. In many cases programming and professors teach pre-service educators to build their curricula as a reflection of the standards and or expectations for which they will be beholden to, or more to the point, how they as teachers will be evaluated. I would offer this process, instead of bolstering student learning to its greatest degree, instead creates a modified “teaching to the test” scenario for teachers. In my experience, and under the current system, the pre-service educator is beholden to a corporatist like model that focuses mostly on the bottom-line and or tax payer accountability. While these are obviously very important to the overall health of the educative environment these types of ideologies tend to turn the focus away from what or how learning is taught and squarely focuses more on a result that is based on the educator as opposed to the student. Effectively, it could be argued that under the current educative system, the focus in placed on “proving we are teaching” as opposed to “are the students actually learning”. In my opinion, the former is not what education should be about. Too often, we have taught pre-service teachers to focus on themselves, while the students are certainly part of the equation, but we must ensure that the students’ learning is never compromised regardless of the cacophony of competing priorities that can comprise the current educational system. In my classroom, I will endeavor to prepare my pre-service teachers for educative environments which are comprised of learners seen as individuals who consume learning in their own way and who carry with them their own unique experiences, cultures, expertise, and knowledge. Throughout my instruction, lessons will cater to those individuals and will require them to be self-reflective and to provide ongoing opportunities in which pre-service teachers will make pedagogical decisions based on how they conceptualize learning with their own students. My overarching goal is to synergize theory and practice while paying close attention to the central tenants of language, experience, individualization, and sustainability. I believe that good teaching is born out of theory which is foundational to governing one’s practice. However, it is important to not base curricula simply on the theory of teaching. In my classroom, I teach future educators to draw upon self-reflection, personal experience, and theories on literacies and personhood, and to then determine what strategies, activities, and assessments best represent what was actually learned as opposed to what was expected to be learned. I teach my students to recognize that the classroom is not a group of students but instead the classroom is comprised from a group of individual learners who all have different strengths and weaknesses, background knowledge, cultures, and experiences, and that those all play a role in how best to teach them.