About

I am a teacher of 20 years in the American Public Education System, and currently teach English at Canandaigua Academy in upstate New York. I am also the IB Coordinator and National Board certified teacher.

While I’ve always been interested in writing, composition, and literature. My passions over the past several years have evolved into technology integration, project based learning, critical pedagogy, maker spaces, digital writing, first year composition and threshold learning.

When I started teaching, I was all about teaching books that I was passionate about.

Now, I’m less interested in content and  more interested in creating environments where students can explore their own passions and learn to read, write, think and create through these passions.

Over the years, I’m particularly interested in helping high school juniors and seniors with their college admissions essays. In our test-heavy, test-crazy educational system, students and teachers don’t have the time to develop the important attributes of colleges admissions essays. Elements of writing such as voice, creativity, originality, personality don’t have a place in state tests or even in AP or IB assessments. I can help students write their way into good college essays either with face-to-face sessions in the Upstate New York area, or electronically for anyone else.

I’ve been working with students on college essays for over ten years. My students have been accepted to Harvard, Cornell, Dartmouth, Tufts, University of Chicago, Princeton, Haverford, Colgate, Nazareth, St. John Fisher, and top tier SUNY schools.

When I’m not teaching, I’m really into running on trails and ultramarathons. I’m pursuing a personal quest to run around all of the New York Finger Lakes. See my pages on this pursuit.