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About me

 

Inspiration

Born and raised in San Francisco, I had to move to Santa Rosa right before my junior year in high school. When my newly appointed counselor was assigning me classes I asked him, give me one that uses profanity in class. With a laugh, he gave me Mr. O'Neill for 5th period US History.

This guy was the best. Always interesting lectures, funny, and cool; I always looked forward to his class after lunch. He was always able to keep my attention in a subject that I had no interest and the only times I found myself daydreaming was during the videos he showed and not lecturing. He even inspired me to take a history course at the junior college next door. What he was to me, I want to be to other students.

Goal

Student success. I define this as success in my class, subsequent math classes that follow, other non-math classes, and lastly with work. I don't want students to leave my class afraid of math, fractions, or word problems. Through teaching the skill of networking as well as using resources, I want to instill a hard work ethic and develop a confidence and mental toughness that each one can bring to future classes, mathematics or not.

Teaching Philosophy

I feel the root of all my success with students begins and ends with making a connection. Recently, I have discovered that my interpersonal communication skills are my biggest strengths and use them to "coach" my students through rough academic times. It's clear that not everyone likes math. To not like math is one thing, to like their instructor and enjoy a class lecture is another. I have always enjoyed attending a class of a professor that I liked and could relate to. Thus, I get down to the students' level to understand each student for the purpose of creating individualized contexts that the students can relate to.

Academics:

Santa Rosa High Class of 1998. (1996-1998)

Santa Rosa Junior College (1997-1998)

Skyline College (1998-2000)

University of California, Los Angeles (2000-2002), B.S. Mathematics

San Francisco State University (2003-2005), M.A. Mathematics