The author of I'm Just a Teacher shares his love of teaching, his passion for learning, and his art of building relationships with students and their families. As a highly imaginative, innovative, and award-winning educator with over fifty years of experience his remarkable lifelong goal has been "To Reach Out, Touch Others, and Make a Difference." Over the years, he has developed a unique and highly motivational system of project-based learning and assessment with multiple pathways, fostering greater student engagement and success.
Today, teachers face angry and hostile citizen groups; a merciless, raging pandemic; encounter a lack of respect and waning trust while the nobility of the profession has been run aground. For public school teachers, some career politicians bent on their unwavering agendas to abandon and bury public education is a continual threat. The shortage of teachers is seriously rampant and shortchanging students while overworking current educators. The vital academic freedom needed to teach and make a difference in the lives of students is replaced with forced data collection for political reasons.
The author insists that in spite of these challenges to the profession, educators wear many hats and are masters of multitasking. Indeed, learning can become fun, and in his teaching bag, the use of humor is a key methodology. Learning can be exciting, entertaining, and challenging in creating a positive and proactive learning environment. Knowledge of aikido instills in him a sense of calm, confidence, and control in the face of adversity. It is turning anguish into positive action. It enables him to be in charge of the situation and not the situation in charge of him. To this day, the author firmly believes in teachers, trusts in teachers, and applauds teachers that shower students with praise, compassion, solid example, and instill hope for a brighter future while unleashing student imagination.
