I am currently the High School Science teacher at Balmorhea ISD, a small school with about 140 students in our district and 45 that are secondary. My teaching career started three years ago as an adjunct professor at the Williams Regional Technical Training Center in Fort Stockton, Texas teaching courses including a Rocket class for high school students. Since moving to Balmorhea, I have been the HS science department having to develop and teach curriculum for biology, physics, chemistry, environmental science, and anatomy and physiology. This past year was our first venture into computer science and robotics along with competitions. The UIL Computer Science team has performed well, making it to Regional competition for the two years I have been here. We also had our first adventure into robotics using the VEX format.

As an educator, my perspective is holistic and integrative of the various disciplines I am proficient in. I seek to provide students with the big picture of not only what they need to know but also how and why they need to know. Technology has been a boon for us being able to generate projects and activities with new devices such as a 3D printer, allowing students to become their own engineers and scientists for what is required. Being from a small school, my students rarely had the opportunity to encounter topics such as aquaponics, programming, and engineering. My pursuit could be summarized as striving to go beyond the given.

I was first introduced to Logo through the Summer Institute of 2017 as part of my required training in my CS Collaborative and immediately became engrossed with the approach of the facilitators and the content presented, especially the block-programming wonder of Snap! My favorite aspect is the encouragement and development of creativity. It is my hope that I not only share my experiences and knowledge with the group but to also grow and learn from others.

On a personal note, I am a person of many avocations. Aside from science, I am an avid musician able to play 7 instruments, 4 at a professional level- the guitar (18 years), saxophone, bass, and charango. I also enjoy to read philosophy and operate at the creative levels of engineering including CAD designing inventions, buildings, and coding simulations in subjects of interest such as fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, and automation.