Professional Documents

1) Resume

2) 2014 NSTA Conference Presentation Descriptions

3) 2013 NSTA Conference Presentation Description

Videos

Innovation is Taking Risks!

I created this video for my application to the Google Teacher Academy in Boulder, CO. The GTA is a great way to quickly connect with other innovative teachers in the area. Part of the application process was to create a 1-minute video on either "Classroom Innovation" or "Motivation and Learning." I chose the innovation route -- since working at a 1:1 progressive school in Taiwan for a year had given mean tons of opportunities to push the envelope within my science class.

The video can be directly accessed via YouTube by clicking here.

Teaching Sample: Inquiry Through Investigation

In this lesson my aim was to show that I can help kids "see" a big idea through the results of a lab exercise. The day before this video was captured the students used the mobile laptops to go to a website simulation of two runners and used it to carry out different "demos" of the runners going different speeds. Their homework was to graph the results and then we analyzed it in the taped lesson to show that the slope of their distance-time graphs could be used to determine the velocity (which is a "big idea" in our Force and Motion unit).

Click Here to Download the "Inquiry Through Investigation" Teaching Sample

Teaching Sample: Probing Student Understanding

In this lesson I was working to gain an understanding of students previous knowledge and misconceptions regarding mass, volume, and density. Students are working in pairs and thinking on their own, sharing with their partner, and then sharing with the whole class. The lesson is based on 4 challenge questions that I designed to get to the heart of student understanding. Many students explain their thinking and are scientifically inaccurate, however, I am purposeful in not correcting them. The point of this lesson is not to teach, but to gather information about why students believe what they do about density.

Click Here to Download "Probing Student Understanding" Teaching Sample

Websites, Blog Articles and Podcasts

U Tech Tips

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A colleague, David Carpenter, shared a quick story on U Tech Tips (an educational blog about teaching and technology) about my interactions with one of our ESL students while working at Hsinchu International School. It's a funny story and does a great job of illustrating my ability to keep working to break down barriers to learning.

Shift Our Schools Podcast

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Shifting Our Schools Episode 18: What Are Some Shifted Practices in Our Schools?

In this episode, David and Jeff share stories of "shifted educators" at their respective schools. I was featured in the podcast and David explained how my energy bar project (detailed in the student gallery) used both inquiry and student-centered instruction to better teach nutrition and the biology of macromolecules.