First and foremost, I am a teacher.
My professional licensure is in Adolescent & Young Adult, English Language Arts (ELA). I received my M.Ed. from Antioch University. Typically, I work with students between the ages of 14-18.
I've also taught Video Production, Ethics & Morality, and for one short season I was also Franklinton High School's boxing coach.
In certain areas, schools serve as the only safe place in a young person's life. But we can't protect them all the time. In this video Ty'Shanae talks about the murder of her 16-year-old cousin, Ty'Sean. The experience of losing a student is devastating. However, as we mourned together as a small school there was also something extraordinary about it. As a tribe, we sat together in our gymnasium the morning after it happened, sharing stories about him, crying together, occasionally laughing together -- adults and children of vastly different backgrounds. It was a moment of human connection I feel so fortunate to have experienced. And hope I never have to experience again.
Mr. Turtle
Mr. C's "Surf School"
This is a work-in-progress, where I play multiple characters -- an uptight high school teacher (not a far stretch), a world-class surfer (a huge stretch), and an overly intellectual Italian art critic (meh). More to come...
Mondokio International News
Mondokio International News was an educational resource that allowed high school students to consider multiple perspectives on the same news topic. My objective for this project was to pierce the culturally-specific lens by which everyone perceives the world around them. In its place, the idea was to develop a kind of a global lens for understanding important world events and create a better framework for cross-cultural communication. The service positively impacted hundreds of young people and was used by many educators in several countries. It was also the reason I became a high school teacher. The project ended in 2015.