I grew up in sterling heights, Michigan where I was a part of the Utica Community school district and attended Schwarzkoff elementary, Davis junior high, and Stevenson High School. during those formative years i played a variety of sports (mainly baseball & basketball) and excelled in the academic areas of history, English literature, and graphic arts. all of which played an important role for me as I moved on to Macomb community college & later, Oakland university where I earned a bachelor's degree in English & political science.,
Upon earning my b.a., i soon took a position with eds and worked at their Buick customer service call center in troy and then transferred over to their technical writing division where I authored a series of owner's manuals for the GMC truck line. after spending a few years with eds, I moved on to Chrysler financial services and worked my way up through the ranks and became a collections supervisor for the new York city & Syracuse regions.
then in 2002, in the midst of the pending financial crisis, i RETURNED to Oakland university AND STARTED upon a new path IN LIFE & entered the m.a.t (master of arts in teaching) program which had a very strong emphasis on secondary education. This single PROGRAM ALLOWED ME TO BECOME A CERTIFIED 6-12 TEACHER IN THE STATE OF MICHIGAN AS WELL AS EARN A MASTER'S DEGREE IN EDUCATION shortly thereafter. this excellent PROGRAM also Allowed me the opportunity to observe, student teach, & long-term sub at Notre dame college preparatory in Pontiac AND ULTIMATELY LED ME TO LAKE SHORE HIGH SCHOOL'S ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS Department.
DURING MY tenure AT LSHS, i HAVE TAUGHT a wide range of English courses including English 9 through 12, as well as MANY of our fine elective offerings, including GREEK MYTH, SHORT STORY, & business WRITING. in 2012, I was selected by my peers and Administrators to chair the English Department. In that position I have had the chance to mentor several of our new hires, REPRESENT my colleagues AT the DISTRICT'S TECHNOLOGY AND CURRICULUM meetings, create a Departmental Web presence (ELA Homepage), and develop a series of data rich assessments that are fully aligned with the common core standards.
on a more personal level, my wife and I have now been married for JUST OVER 21 years and are the proud "parents" of four wonderful "fur babies": Sawyer (a wise and very loving golden retriever), Zooey (the rescued & slightly off-center German shepherd), Dave (an orphaned kitten that found his way to us) & the Pilar the Polydactyl.
during my free time i like to keep myself busy with a wide variety of HOBBIES including being a volunteer at the Detroit Zoo & Fundraising for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, & assistant coaching the lshs varsity lacrosse team.
I also enjoy READING HORROR novels (E.A. Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Clive barker, & Stephen king), Comics, SCI-FI (star wars & Doctor Who), classic literature (Hemingway & Salinger) & watching Detroit Tigers baseball. If that wasn't enough, I also play guitar & bass (both rather poorly).
in addition to all of that, my wife & i really love to travel! we have driven or flown to all compass points of the usa (personal favorites include the u.p., San Francisco, Seattle, & Key West, FL) and we're setting our sights on crossing the Atlantic and soon visiting Ireland, Scotland, & great britian.
Upon earning my b.a., i soon took a position with eds and worked at their Buick customer service call center in troy and then transferred over to their technical writing division where I authored a series of owner's manuals for the GMC truck line. after spending a few years with eds, I moved on to Chrysler financial services and worked my way up through the ranks and became a collections supervisor for the new York city & Syracuse regions.
then in 2002, in the midst of the pending financial crisis, i RETURNED to Oakland university AND STARTED upon a new path IN LIFE & entered the m.a.t (master of arts in teaching) program which had a very strong emphasis on secondary education. This single PROGRAM ALLOWED ME TO BECOME A CERTIFIED 6-12 TEACHER IN THE STATE OF MICHIGAN AS WELL AS EARN A MASTER'S DEGREE IN EDUCATION shortly thereafter. this excellent PROGRAM also Allowed me the opportunity to observe, student teach, & long-term sub at Notre dame college preparatory in Pontiac AND ULTIMATELY LED ME TO LAKE SHORE HIGH SCHOOL'S ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS Department.
DURING MY tenure AT LSHS, i HAVE TAUGHT a wide range of English courses including English 9 through 12, as well as MANY of our fine elective offerings, including GREEK MYTH, SHORT STORY, & business WRITING. in 2012, I was selected by my peers and Administrators to chair the English Department. In that position I have had the chance to mentor several of our new hires, REPRESENT my colleagues AT the DISTRICT'S TECHNOLOGY AND CURRICULUM meetings, create a Departmental Web presence (ELA Homepage), and develop a series of data rich assessments that are fully aligned with the common core standards.
on a more personal level, my wife and I have now been married for JUST OVER 21 years and are the proud "parents" of four wonderful "fur babies": Sawyer (a wise and very loving golden retriever), Zooey (the rescued & slightly off-center German shepherd), Dave (an orphaned kitten that found his way to us) & the Pilar the Polydactyl.
during my free time i like to keep myself busy with a wide variety of HOBBIES including being a volunteer at the Detroit Zoo & Fundraising for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, & assistant coaching the lshs varsity lacrosse team.
I also enjoy READING HORROR novels (E.A. Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Clive barker, & Stephen king), Comics, SCI-FI (star wars & Doctor Who), classic literature (Hemingway & Salinger) & watching Detroit Tigers baseball. If that wasn't enough, I also play guitar & bass (both rather poorly).
in addition to all of that, my wife & i really love to travel! we have driven or flown to all compass points of the usa (personal favorites include the u.p., San Francisco, Seattle, & Key West, FL) and we're setting our sights on crossing the Atlantic and soon visiting Ireland, Scotland, & great britian.