Professional Stuff

My first year of teaching was at Taft Middle School in Marion, Ohio, where I taught six identical sections of Earth Science to 8th graders.  I knew I  had to get out of there before I went crazy, or turned into a human tape recorder!  For the next 29 years I taught various topics including Geology, Meteorology, Photography, four levels of Spanish, and Computer Science to students in grades 7- 12 at New Albany Middle & High School just northeast of Columbus..

For lack of a better term, I gradually became a "microcomputer specialist" after purchasing my own computer in 1979, and using it in my classes at school. By the time I retired (1998), I was spending about half my time in class with students, and half as network administrator and "fireman". My last two years were spent on the new campus, and there were many small "fires" to put out, and...well...let's just say I slept well through sheer exhaustion. Nevertheless, teaching on the new campus with the extensive technology there was a great way to end my teaching career.  I was the first teacher to bring a programmable calculator and personal computer into the old high school. It's amazing how far we had come!  Last I heard, the campus had 900 computers!

During past summers I volunteered at the Ohio Supercomputer Center during their Summer Institute for High School Students during July. They offer an excellent program which gives talented high school juniors and seniors a  chance to use some very expensive state-of-the-art hardware.

My last 7th grade class at work on spreadsheets.