Find Some of My Work & Passions Outlined Below:
History & Humanities Teaching
As my foremost consumer of time and energy, teaching within the humanities guides my life at the moment. Traveling across the US, I have taught at schools in Vermont, California, and Washington. In these schools, I have taught a variety of classes across the humanities and social sciences, though mostly focused on World History but with a few other titles such as American Studies, Humanities, Economics, and English 9/10. I currently possess teaching credentials in both Washington State and California in Upper School Social Science, both of which include English Language Learner authorization and endorsements. If you'd like to view some of my curriculum, you can find a sampling (dated to about early 2020) located in this Google Drive Folder. My current teaching fits within the International Baccalaureate program in both the Middle Years Programs and the Diploma Programs. I teach 7th grade and 10th grade Individuals & Societies, an interdisciplinary social science and humanities course that asks questions about how humans, societies, and environments interact. It includes near equal doses of history, social science, philosophy, politics, economics, and interdisciplinary ecological thinking. Additionally, I teach the well-renown and transformative course known as Theory of Knowledge (TOK), a hallmark class of the Diploma Program. This college level critical thinking course encourages students to ask big questions, guided by the simple question "How do you know that?" It is explores this question in a variety of ways and seeks to better understand what we know, how we come to know what we know, and the various ways to know something. It asks much of us, and it has much to offer. Beyond these, I am interested particularly in education and teaching which bridges the gap between outdoor/experiential learning and the more traditional classroom. Therefore, a curriculum which seeks to foster ecological thinking and inquiry, partnered with a critical analysis of the world and critical inquiry is one which I seek to create.
Outdoor & Experiential Education
I have been lucky enough to call many beautiful places home over the years. I've lead canoe trips in Maine, backpacking trips in the Sierra Nevada, rafted the white waters of West Virginia, zip-lined through Douglas Firs in the Pacific Northwest, and most notably, co-led a 37-day backpacking trip thru-hiking Vermont's 273-mile Long Trail. If you would like a sampling of my experiences in outdoor and experiential education, please check out my Outdoor Educator Portfolio. While it is still a work in progress, it gives you a good sample of my experiences. Outdoor and Experiential Education theory and practice forms the foundation of my pedagogy. Teaching, learning, and schooling that is immersive, based on self-discovery, and which promotes the betterment of one's self and the world is at the heart of these theories--and my own. I seek to integrate these into a traditional educational environment and classroom.
Personal Pursuits
I have a variety of personal pursuits that I find myself spending time working on. While I currently do not have any big "projects" in the workings--at least not as my friends describe them--I do have some small things I am working toward: journaling, blogging (as you can see on this site!), reading tremendously, playing board and card games, generally being outside, and essentially enjoying trying to stay fit. Alas, I have numerous more ideas to be listed here. If I have additional projects, I'll post them here soon.
"Scholarly" Work & Ideas
Having grown up the way I did, it feels very strange to remotely consider myself a "scholar" of any sort. However, over the last several years, I have not only completed two masters degrees, one in Education and one in History, but I have been deeply exploring numerous topics related to society at large, in addition to knowledge more intimately. I wrote a thesis entitled "Epiphanies, Metaphors, and Liminality: Mountains and Religion in 17th Century English Thought" at Fort Hays State University where I explored the connections between mountains and religion and religious experience in the 17th century at the dawn of the notion of the "Sublime" which went on to influence environmental thought to this day. Additionally, in my graduate work, I explored in numerous classes the history of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) specifically in the Pacific Northwest, with an orientation toward understanding the Lumber Strike of 1917. In many ways, my historical scholarship was very interdisciplinary. Likewise, in my Education masters degree, I focused on a broad range of subjects and though it was not research oriented, I was still exposed to a wide range of ideas that built off of my undergraduate degree in education. As you can see, my interest range broadly, and I am fascinated by scholarship, and I am hopeful to produce more of my own some day. Currently, and after finishing my masters in history, my interests lie at the intersections of climate change, religion, politics, knowledge, education, philosophy, and to some extent history. In both personal and professional life, I am seeking answers to many questions, but two of the main ones at the moment, which might appear in different forms on this blog, include:
1) How can we collectively operate in ways that help us to solve the sensemaking challenges of the 21st century? At root this is an education problem, so what forms of education can mitigate this and promote its resolution?
2) How can integrating an ecological worldview help mitigate and resolve the social, political, and cultural problems of the world as they relate to climate change? These issues are deeply rooted in political power and social justice, so how do we decide?
As you can see, both of these problems focus on an idea of increasing our capacity for sensemaking and also integrating an ecological worldview into society which will foster greater justice, equity, and wellbeing for all.
Reading
As you may have already noticed, another big feature of this blog will likely be book reviews. My reading ranges widely, as do my interest. But if you are interested in at least some of the places where I am coming from, where I am gathering my ideas, and where I go to escape, please feel free to read along!
