My Work Life
While in University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I spent a
lot of time doing basic jobs just to pay the bills including; waiter,
night clerk, bank teller, and shoe salesman. While these certainly
helped to pay my bills they were not quite what I wanted as a career.
For that I would need to build on my history degree so ....
After I graduated and took a year off, I started the Masters
program at University of Missouri at Columbia. While there I
entered into form of indentured servitude that is more commonly
known as being a teaching assistant. I finished up my Masters but found
the actually teaching of students more interesting than the long books
on topics such as the effect of colonialsim on the economic system of
Great Britain from the years 1750-1800.
When I moved back to Chicago, I decided to enroll at the DePaul
University to get my teaching certificate. While continuing to
work on restaurants and as a claims clerk at Sears Logistic Services I
was able to finish off the requirements to get my certificate by
student teaching at Von Steuben Metropolitan Academy in Chicago.
After substituting for a while and working one year at Hyde Park Career
Academy in Chicago, I started a job in the education programs
department at the Chicago Historical Society. I enjoyed it but
missed seeing the same students every day.
So when I found out that Roycemore School was looking for a history
teacher I applied and was hired. My main responsibilities were in
history but I also taught a math to the seventh grade one class period
and taught a class called organzational skills to the fifth and sixth
graders once a week. This is my seventh year at Roycemore. While
I have always been fascinated by the different currents in history, I
have become more interested in math over time. I am the co-sponsor of
the math team and started an afterschool session once every two weeks
called math lab that focuses on a different topic that runs through the
middle school curriculum.