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Background

For those who may be interested, here is a little background into my education and how I got here...

Way back when I was in high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.  Lack of anything approaching musical or athletic ability meant dreams of being a Rock Star or playing in the NBA weren't going to happen.  So I just went with the flow and enrolled in the local community college... Indian River CC.

My SAT scores placed me in a Precalculus course during my first semester.  I hadn't thought of myself as having any particular talent in mathematics but I did pretty well in that class.  The instructor noticed and he happened to be in charge of their Math Lab.  Once I was done with Calculus he offered me a job there, which turned out to be the first step on the road that led to teaching.

I earned my AA degree after a couple of years then decided to attend the University of West Florida, a state school located in Pensacola.  I still had no real idea what I wanted and majored in Electrical Engineering for a year before I realized that career wasn't for me.  I switched to Math so that the year wasn't completely wasted.  I had been working in the UWF Math Lab so I was familiar with the program.






Two more years passed until I had a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics.  Then of course I wondered what to do with it.  No thoughts sprung to mind so it was back to school.  I stayed at UWF, enrolled in the Math graduate program, and after a semester was offered a Graduate Teaching Assistantship.  I taught my first class, a College Algebra section, in Fall 1998.  I had no real teacher training and I wasn't very comfortable speaking in public so the experience was interesting to say the least... but I really liked it.  I spent lots of time preparing but it didn't feel like work.  I kept teaching while I earned my Masters degree, then I stayed at UWF and taught full time for two years.

After a while I felt like I should return to school.  I applied to the University of
Central Florida and moved to Orlando in Fall 2002.  Once again I was a GTA
with my own classes.  During the summers I went back to my home town to teach
at IRCC.  That was somewhat surreal, working at the same place where I
had first been a student.  This went on for a few years until in Fall 2007 I got a job at
Valencia Community College.  I worked at the East Campus for a year before
transferring to West, where I currently teach.






Over twenty years, hundreds of classes, and who knows how many students later, and I still love this job.  Every semester brings fresh ideas, new challenges, different people.  I want to continue to improve my teaching skills and help my students succeed... hopefully this page provides some insight into how and why I am here...

Aside from teaching, my main interests are photography, basketball, and music (all kinds).  I especially like to combine those... to see some of my favorite photos I've taken over the past year, follow this link.