Education
I'm context obsessive. As a kid I checked out biographies and encyclopedias from the library, because I can't understand something until I know how it got there. Helping other people get there too is the job I've had ever since.
Appalachian State University
B.S. in History, Secondary Social Studies Education
I picked App State for its teacher prep program and for Boone itself. The mountains were the draw, and the move was my first step west. (Oregon came later.)
The class that stuck. Professor Anatoly Isaenko's course on ethnic conflict traced conflicts back to their root causes. It's still how I approach a problem: learn how it got here before trying to fix it.
The idea I use every day. Universal Design for Learning, from an accessibility course in the Reich College of Education. Offer scaffolding to everyone who wants it, because it helps everyone and hurts no one. I build it into every training I design, and into this site.
Outside class. I founded and led a student organization, planning and running campus events.
Student teaching, Marvin Ridge High School
I taught IB World History and Honors Civics and Economics to three classes of 10th and 11th graders, about 20 to 25 students each.
My cooperating teacher, Matthew Gaine, was known for exceptional standards. Meeting them was the real test of the semester, and it set the bar I've held myself to since.
What the classroom taught me that coursework couldn't: how to run a room, and how to pace a lesson in real time when the plan meets actual students.
Oak Ridge Military Academy
I needed structure, and Oak Ridge gave me plenty: full-time JROTC, uniforms every day, inspections, formations and mess hall food. It also gave me close friends.
I served on battalion staff as S-5 (Public Affairs), which put me in front of the corps giving speeches. I also earned membership in the National Honor Society and Mu Alpha Theta.
What stuck: discipline, leading peers and attention to detail. I still make my bed with hospital corners.
Learning by doing, now learning the why
Most of what I know about training adults I learned on the job. Running 150+ sessions a year teaches you quickly what works. Now I'm going after the principles behind it, so I can explain why something works, not just that it does.
Next up: Microsoft AI-901 (Azure AI Fundamentals), ATD instructional design training and Kirkpatrick certification.
Licenses and certifications
- North Carolina teaching license, social studies, grades 9 to 12 (inactive)
- South Carolina teaching license, social studies, grades 9 to 12 (inactive)
- AP U.S. History certification