Middle School History Teacher
Know Your Pelicans
What do you teach? What is one of your favorite parts of the curriculum?
I teach Middle School US History. I enjoy trying to bring in the history of the common person. I feel that social history allows us to appreciate authentic voices of people not always included in textbooks. A Bill Broonzy blues song can tell you an awful lot about what it was like to live in the Mississippi Delta.
Besides your subject, what's something you hope to teach your students?
I hope students leave my classroom with an understanding of the value of resilience, humility, kindness, and humor. The human experience can be a difficult one at times. People don't always treat you the way you would like, and sometimes you get hit hard by circumstances. You have to be able to laugh, have perspective, and hopefully lighten others' burdens just a bit.
What's one thing you love about your colleagues?
My colleagues are really talented educators, and my students are some of the finest kids I've ever worked with. One of the reasons I applied to come to Packer was to continue to be challenged in my teaching, and as a person. Both things have happened because of the people I spend my days with in this venerable building.
If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?
I think a good superpower would be the ability to time travel. It would be very useful in my line of work; we could have a Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure in my classroom daily. Scarily, Bill and Ted are ancient history.