2009–2026
Fifteen years in Room 114
Career
I teach US history at Northbend High in Dayton, Ohio. Before that, a history degree and a year of student teaching. This is the short version; the long version is in the posts.
Since 2011 Northbend High, Room 114
Chair Social studies, seven teachers
Adviser The yearbook, since 2019
The timeline
From student teacher to department chair
2009
BA in history, Ohio University
Wrote my senior thesis on the 1913 Dayton flood, which is why I still notice when a textbook gets the river wrong.
2010
Student teaching, Dayton Public Schools
Two semesters of eighth-grade social studies. Learned that a lesson plan is a guess and the room decides.
2011
US history teacher, Northbend High
Hired to teach four sections of US history. Still in Room 114.
2016
Social studies department chair
Seven teachers, one shared schedule, and the end of the department’s three different gradebooks.
2019
Restarted the yearbook
The yearbook had been gone for two years. Twelve students and I brought it back, and it has come out every spring since.
2023
Started this blog
Somewhere to keep the lessons that did not fit in the period.
What I bring to the room
Skills
- US history
- Lesson planning
- Classroom discussion
- Yearbook advising
- Department scheduling
- Local Dayton history
Résumé Sample file
A one-page PDF with the same timeline, for anyone who needs it on paper. This copy is a placeholder.
From the classroom
Career posts
- The pad comes first
I type the weekly plan into the school system every Sunday night. I still start on a yellow pad. Last week the pad showed me I… - The river in the textbook was in the wrong place
The freshman book puts the Great Miami River on the wrong side of the old mill in the 1913 flood chapter. I noticed it in my… - What I say to a senior who wants to quit
Once a year someone stays after the bell and says they are done. I do not give them the speech about potential. I ask what hour…