"But that's easy!" is the response I hope for and often get when I teach. I have been a licensed secondary (grades 6-12) teacher for over ten years. My first career was as a military officer. For some reason, when I retired, my wife of many years informed me that sitting around the house was not an option. Our daughters were in middle and high school at the time. Their dinner table stories about school were, at times, a bit scary. I had all the qualifications to be a long-term substitute teacher; it would get me out of the house and thus please the real boss, and it would horrify our kids; so why not? And so I did.

To my surprise, I enjoyed teaching and was fairly good at it. I went back to school (as an undergraduate!) and filled all the annoying bureaucratic squares. While doing the school work, I "subbed" as much as I could. My experience from all this includes teaching middle school math, pre-algebra, algebra I and II, geometry, high school calculus, U.S. government, American and world history and physics.

Currently, I teach ancient civilizations but I tutor (primarily) math and science in formal programs (which I helped create) before school, during the lunch period and after school. Though our "formal" emphasis has been on those students who were failing, my approach is to also include those kids who want to move from "passing" to an "A."

And yes, I know my photo looks like mug shot. My former students call me "the Old Crab" for a reason." less...