Teacher

Teaching: My Story

I began teaching music in Parkersburg, Iowa in 2003. At this small rural school known then for its extremely successful football team, I grew the choir in both numbers and quality. I loved the community there - students participated in multiple extracurriculars, and it seemed like I had half the football team in my choir, along with half the volleyball team, band, drama club, and everything else. I also coached varsity girls soccer, and brought an 0-12 team to a winning record in two seasons.

In 2005, I moved to Kimberly, WI and quickly adjusted to teaching and coaching in a much larger school, where student achievement was very high. I was the head coach of the varsity men's soccer team for two seasons, and learned how to lead a large and successful athletic team. As a choral director, I focused intently on the individual student - building solo performance and literacy abilities. All 7 of the school's choirs grew in numbers and quality. I learned to manage a large, active, and visible program that was gaining a reputation for excellence. We put on dozens of vocal performances each year, and grew our community presence. During my time at Kimberly, I was the music director and sound designer for 12 theatrical productions, which gave me an intimate understanding of the technical intricacies of large-scale performances. I developed deep and long-lasting relationships with my students and colleagues at Kimberly, and have maintained contact with many of them years later. I still nostalgically listen to recordings of some of my favorite pieces that I rehearsed and conducted during my time there. (see right)

Some of my favorite student performance recordings from KHS:
Lux Aurumque - Eric Whitacre This Little Light of Mine - Moses Hogan
And So it Goes - Billy Joel Famine Song - Matthew Culloton

After a difficult goodbye to Kimberly High School, I began my international teaching career in Kuwait. Teaching in a for-profit international school showed me the value of failure and grit. After two years in Kuwait, I accepted an offer to teach for the Saudi Aramco Expatriate Schools in Saudi Arabia - the largest energy company in the world. It's actually the largest company in the world - it's about 10 times the size of Apple. I taught voice, guitar, and podcasting courses in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The curriculum was basically that of a standard American school, but the students were incredibly diverse. I loved the rich and authentic cultural variety I encountered each day. The students pushed me to expand my own cultural repertoire of music and performance. I also grew in my abilities as travel agent and event planner - I was elected chairman of the Saudi Arabian Intra-Kingdom Music Association and was responsible for coordinating, planning, hosting, and/or implementing 9 international music festivals in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. I learned the true value of organization, planning, and communication for large-scale projects.

The most important lesson I've learned from teaching, traveling, and living abroad is the value of an education that fosters the ability to think. The more able you are able to think, the more flexible your mental model of the world is. Put another way, those that can think adjust their mental models to the world, while those who don't attempt to adjust the world to their mental models.

After 5 years in the Middle East, we decided to move back home to be closer to family, and settled in Minnesota. I took a year off from teaching to complete a Master of Arts in Educational Technology. I completed courses that helped me gain a more mature and nuanced understanding of designing instruction with digital tools. I have also completed three “Games and Meaningful Play” courses as my electives. These courses have greatly augmented my educational game design skills, allowing me to create new and innovative methods for learning. I am grateful for the opportunity to focus directly on learning new knowledge and skills that will make me a more effective and well rounded learner and teacher.

More than ever, the sheer magnitude of human knowledge renders its coverage by education an impossibility; rather, the goal of education is better conceived as helping students develop the intellectual tools and learning strategies needed to acquire the knowledge that allows people to think productively about history, science and technology, social phenomena, mathematics, and the arts. Fundamental understanding about subjects, including how to frame and ask meaningful questions about various subject areas, contributes to individuals’ more basic understanding of principles of learning that can assist them in becoming self-sustaining, lifelong learners

-Bransford, J. L., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (2000). How people learn