TIR Handbook - Mini-Biographies: 06-07

Teacher in Residence – Handbook

Mini-Biographies for the TIR's
Their stories in their own words!

2006-07 TIR's

Tracy Bond

I received my training at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. I graduated in 2003 with an MA in physics as part of a degree program tailored to students who will go on to teach physics at the high school or two-year college level. After high school, I came into physics with no plans for my degree. I had loved my AP physics class and loved the subject more than any other. When I finished my undergraduate work without a clear direction for the future, my (wonderful!) mentor approached me regarding the MA program. The more I considered the possibility, the more right it felt. Teaching has become one of my great passions; I cannot imagine myself in another career. In addition to my love for physics, I discovered that I love to work with teens.

I taught for the past three years at Lutheran High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Beginning my teaching career at a young school gave me the opportunity to build the physics program from the ground up, which is invaluable experience. When I began at Lutheran High, physics had 15 enrollees. Last year, there were 41 students who chose physics. In addition to stocking the physics laboratory with necessary equipment, I founded and sponsored the Science Club. The past two years, my students have competed in High School Physics Day. Two years ago they received the second place award. Last year they won first place, beating many larger schools. I also coached the boys' and girls' cross-country and track teams at Lutheran High; both teams received a state cross-country championship in 2003.

In 2002-2003, I took part in the inaugural year of an NSF program called GK-12. In this program, I was paired with a middle school math teacher. I came into her classroom two days a week, sometimes more. Working with the team's science teacher and her intern, we incorporated science and math technology into the curriculum. Prior to GK-12, I gained experience working as a teaching assistant for introductory calculus-based physics courses at the University of Arkansas.

My husband, Wes, and I were married in December 2003. We had a beautiful baby girl, Olivia, in August 2005. After Wes graduates from pharmacy school in May 2007, I plan to continue working with youth in both educational and spiritual settings.

David Buck-Moyer

I was trained as a high school chemistry teacher at Occidental College in Eagle Rock, California. I began my teaching career in 1977. For the first five years I taught a variety of science and math courses in a continuation high in Santa Maria, California. While it sounds strange, it is was the purest teaching and involved the least classroom management of any job of my teaching career. My new wife and I then decided to move to the US Virgin Islands to live and teach out the rest of our lives. It lasted one year, the teaching not the marriage (we are still married). Upon returning to the mainland, I started teaching in a Jr. High school in Los Osos, California. I thought it was only until I could find a job at the high school level. It turned out I loved the age and the curriculum and didn’t leave for 19 years. In 2000 I started working at San Luis High, where I taught physical science, a little chemistry, and some math. Now I am extremely lucky and happy that the local college, Cal Poly, asked if I would serve as a Teacher in Residence for the year 2005-2006.

I have a great supportive family, my wife and two daughters: one away a college and one a sophomore in high school. I enjoy the recreation and fellowship of playing in basketball, softball and tennis leagues. Over the years I have participated in the variety of extras that teachers involve themselves in. A partial list includes having served as a mentor teacher, union negotiator, and technology mentor. I’ve participated in pilot teaching programs, been the site teacher of the year, club advisor and been the science department representative on more committee meetings than seems possible.

Ann Craig

I am currently working as Science Instructor for two courses of "Teaching Science in the Elementary School at Towson. I have an AA degree from Community College of Baltimore in Teacher Education, a BS degree in Early Childhood Education from Coppin State University, a Master's Equivalency in Science Instruction from Morgan State University and Towson University and a Master's Degree in Administration and Supervision from Johns Hopkins University.

My retirement from Baltimore City Public School System after 33 years of service has provided me with a many educational opportunities but my first love in education has always been teaching Science. I love to watch the eyes of students when they discover science concepts through an investigation. I am proud to have held the first Early Childhood Science Fair in Baltimore City.

While most of my career has been working with Elementary and Middle Schools, I find it quite satisfying teaching Science to 3rd and 4th year Towson students who want to become elementary school teachers. This is a great fit for me as it allows me opportunities to share my love of science and help the interns reach a higher comfort level for teaching science. Additionally, I have been working at Johns Hopkins University as a University Supervisor for middle school science teachers.

I have presented at NSTA Conventions in Washington, DC and in Baltimore, Maryland. My interest in science was strengthened when I became a volunteer for nine years at the National Aquarium in Baltimore and I am a self-taught, amateur astronomer. I am a lifetime member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, and I love to travel. I am looking forward to my work as a TIR as it will enable me to help others as well as reinforce my own physics understanding.

Thais Cunha

I began teaching in 1985, having just arrived four years earlier in this country. That year, I secured a job at a multilingual elementary school in the Boston area. This was my first job in a new country, and I was speaking and teaching a language that I did not grow up with. My students were immigrants from Europe, Africa, and South America. It was then that I first confronted the issue of teaching science for students from very disparate schooling experiences as well as students who shared the same language but who had very different cultures and social economical status.

Soon after, I started participating in professional development classes and workshops aimed to enhance my science teaching in elementary school. After I moved to Tucson in 1990, I continued using science topics as teaching units in my classrooms. Between 1995 and 1997, I was invited to help training elementary and middle school teachers across the country in a curriculum designed by the Center for Insect Science at the University of Arizona. Upon my return to my school district, I started teaching middle school science. During my 20 years of teaching, I have taught all areas of science -- at the elementary and middle school level -- and I was asked to be the science facilitator in some of the schools I worked.

As my career has progressed, two areas of interest in education have become apparent – the science education of immigrant students and teacher preparation programs. In order to advance my knowledge, in 1992 I earned a master's degree in Bilingual and Multicultural Education at The University of Arizona. At this moment, I am close to finishing a PhD in Teaching and Teacher Education with a minor in Science Education at the same university. As a graduate student, I taught Methods of Science for Elementary School Teachers and supervised secondary science teachers at the University of Arizona's Teacher Preparation Program. This the past spring, I was invited to join the Teacher-In-Residence program at the College of Science at the University of Arizona were I will be again involved with the training of pre-service teachers. There, I hope to share my experience with future science teachers.

Lezlie Salvatore DeWater

My husband and I have been living in the suburbs of Seattle for nearly 30 years. We have been in the process of remodeling our home for nearly that same length of time. We are among the dwindling numbers of folks in our area who were actually born in Western Washington. We love the close proximity to lots of water and mountains. We have three grown daughters and two grandsons.

I have spent much of my teaching career in elementary schools in the Seattle Public Schools in spite of the fact that I was a French major planning to teach high school. Instead I started as a 2nd grade teacher and then changed positions numerous times to take assignments as an elementary science specialist, an intermediate classroom teacher, a science specialist, a science resource teacher, and an assistant science supervisor. More recently I spent 7 years with the Physics Education Group at the University of Washington where I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to co-instruct the three quarter physics course for pre-service secondary math and science teachers, to be part of the instructional staff for their 6-week summer institute in physics and physical science, and to help with the weekly tutorials for the calculus-based introductory physics course.

I returned to Seattle Public Schools to teach 5th grade in 2004/2005. It was amazing to get back in touch with the mind of 10 year olds and the demands of an elementary classroom teacher. This job never seems to get any easier, but is extremely rewarding. I would have stayed put in the elementary classroom, but Stamatis Vokos at Seattle Pacific University made me an offer I just could not refuse. At SPU this year, I was able to work with prospective elementary teachers in both a content course and a methods course. It was great to be working with the School of Education while being part of the Physics Department This ever-changing, ever-evolving career in teaching has taken me on many journeys. This coming year as a TIR at SPU promises to hold a few more surprises and challenges as well.

Elaine Gwinn

Teaching was a career I never thought I'd enter, and now I've been happily in the classroom for fourteen years. Before I began teaching I was a lab tech at a doctor's office, a cosmetic consultant at Dillard's, a dialysis technician, a wallpaper hanger, and most of all, a wife and mother. As my youngest child reached the pre-school age I decided to go back to college. I had attended West Texas State University, in Canyon, Texas, when I was eighteen and wanting to be a medical technologist. After many travels and two children, I returned to WTSU in 1990 to complete my education. I received a BS in Chemistry in 1992, did my student teaching that fall, and began teaching in January, 1993. I taught a semester of middle school science and then moved to Canyon, Texas, where I taught Physics I, Pre-AP Physics, AP Physics B, Chemistry I, Pre-AP Chemistry, and AP Chemistry (fortunately not all at the same time!).

While at Canyon I enjoyed all the varied aspects of teaching, some of which included being part of the Comprehensive Conceptual Curriculum of Physics (C3P) Project, being a UIL Science Coach and Science Bowl Coach for twelve years, being Science Department Chair for five years, and sponsoring several school organizations.

Life went on, our children grew up, our daughter got married and moved to Indiana, and our son went to college at Butler University. Malcolm, my husband of 28 years, and I decided it was time for a change and the possibility of future grandchildren beckoned. We moved to Indiana in the summer of 2004 and I taught Physics I and Earth/Space Science at TC Howe Academy in Indianapolis that year. This past year I taught Physics I, Chemistry I, and Biology I at Shenandoah High School. I am very excited about serving this year as the TIR at Ball State University and am looking forward to the challenge of working with the PhysTEC project. I am also pleased to have been selected this past summer to become an Indiana Physics Teaching Resource Agent (PTRA). I am currently the proud grandmother of Allison Joy (who is truly a joy!), who turned one year old this summer, and I have a wonderful daughter who is a stay-at-home mom, a fine son-in-law, and a talented son who is 21 years old and attends Western Kentucky University.

Drew Isola

I began teaching in 1982 having just graduated from Michigan Technological University in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula certified to teach both math and physics. My first teaching job was in a small private school in center-city Philadelphia, quite a change from the shores of Lake Superior to the middle of the big city. When my wife finished her graduate work we moved back to Michigan. I completed my M.S. in Science Education at Western Michigan University and started teaching at Allegan High School in Allegan, MI, a small town on the west side of the state not far from the Lake.

I finished my PhD in 1999 and my dissertation was focused on students’ mental models and how they are constructed. I have experience teaching at a wide variety of levels in both mathematics and science from AP Calculus & AP Physics to middle school level courses for honors, grade-level and below grade-level students. Over the years I have been very interested in teacher preparation issues so I am excited about being involved in the PhysTEC Project as a TIR. Being a TIR allows me to share some of the lessons learned, from my experiences, with pre-service teachers and beginning teachers who are connected to the Project.

I currently reside in Allegan with my wife and two daughters. Our two sons are grown and off on their own preparing to start families of their own.

Corby Pine

I completed my undergraduate work at Sweet Briar College in 1979 with a double major in Biology and Sociology. I received my Graduate degree from the University of Virginia and became certified to teach at the Secondary level.

My first job landed me in Maryland at the Middle School level teaching Earth Science. From there I went on to teach several courses at the middle and high school level in both private and public schools. After several years in Maryland I returned to Virginia to teach High School Biology. While in Virginia I served on the Superintendent's Board for Curriculum and Development of Science Education.

In 1986 I became the Science Department Chair in a private school in Baltimore, Maryland. My job included overseeing the science instruction and curriculum development in grades K-12. During my tenure I was nominated to Who's Who in Science Education. I became proficient in Project Wild, Project Learning Tree, and WOW (Wonders of the Wetland). Through the Chesapeake Bay foundation I conducted in-service classes for Baltimore teachers using these curricula.

With the birth of our son I resigned my full-time job and became a part-time, pre-school science teacher and curriculum specialist. My science career has given me the opportunity to teach science at all levels from 2 year-olds through graduate school. I have been an adjunct professor at Towson University for 7 years.

I live in Baltimore, Maryland with my husband Jonathan and our 2 wonderful children Lauren and Jonny.

Nancy Stauch

I began teaching in 1984. Although a biological science graduate from Cal Poly State University, my teaching career for the past 20 years has found me in physical science! I have spent the majority of my time at the 8^th grade level and absolutely love it! The energy of the junior high student is a sight to behold, one that I find refreshing and fun! Each year I hope my students leave me with a love of science and the confidence that they can be successful in their future academic and social situations. (I teach a sex ed course at the end of every year!)

I was fortunate to have wonderful master teachers, so it was an easy decision to want to be involved in teacher education. I have had over fifteen student teachers and with each I have grown as an educator. It is so easy for the classroom teacher to become isolated from the rest of the “world”. Working with Cal Poly and the student teaching program keeps me excited about my profession, abreast with what is happening at the university level. When Chance Hoellwarth contacted me about the Teacher in Residence program I jumped at the opportunity to be involved in teacher education at the college level. Although I am hearing from my school that I am missed, a good thing I suppose, I am looking forward to this awesome opportunity!

Roberta Tanner

I love to teach, and I consider an education to be one of the most important gifts we can give to others, but that was not always the case. In college, I had no desire to enter a low-paying job like teaching. Instead, I earned a double major in physics and mechanical engineering, and went to work for IBM in Boulder, Colorado. The job was fun and paid well, but two things changed the course of my life: having children and teaching a ninth grade class at my church. I quit my engineering job to stay home with my children when they were young. When it was time to go back to work, I decided to enter the teaching field because teaching young people at my church had been so rewarding. I attended the University of Colorado in Boulder to earn my teaching certificate and an M.S. in education. I have been teaching in the Thompson School District ever since.

I quickly found that physics teachers do not always get to teach physics! I have taught Earth Science, Chemistry, Principles of Technology, Pre-Algebra, and Algebra I. Fortunately, I was able to expand my physics program and have spent the last few years teaching General Physics, Accelerated Physics, AP Physic C, and a class I developed called Microcomputer Projects. Development of the latter course resulted in my winning the international Intel Excellence in Teaching award. Other awards and opportunities followed. I am currently an associate member of the Teacher Advisory Council to the National Academy of Science where I have learned much about teacher preparation and inquiry learning. I look forward to learning more of this as a TIR.