Here I am at the ripe old age of 5 or 6. As you can see I was very near sighted, but stopped wearing my classes when I had them shattered while I was standing on second base watching a girl's kickball game at school. Consequently, I missed much learning which took years to make up. See Stories I Never Told my Mother for the full account of this and many other childhood memories.
Hi, my name is Joe, and I first did this page 10 years ago when I was using it as an example for my web page design classes. I first posted this information in March 2005, and I'm retired now, having taught for 34 years in the SF Bay Area. Thirty of those years were at Ralston Middle School where I taught Reading (in a lab four of us teachers designed), English, Social Studies, math, Photography, Computer Literacy, Web Page Design, PE, journalism, and Study Skills. Those were good years, and I still am passionate about teaching and education, but more so in tutoring one on one, or teaching adult education at night school. I love the freedom and flexibility of retirement to ever do anything full time again. Presently, as of 2006, I have been tutoring several middle school students privately.
I have several interests which I will share here with those of you are are interested enough to keep reading. I like to write, and have written two mini books. The first of which is autobiographical, and is called Stories I Never Told My Mother. One of its purposes was to show my students how to write narrative stories. I also wrote a math workbook, Ratio and Proportion, which was a compilation of activities and worksheets I did and used in my math classes. I think you will find both interesting. In 2006 I started tutoring students at the middle school level, and have a whole web site giving my qualificications and recommendations as a teacher and tutor.
My other interests are reading (see Books List) , golf, backpacking (leading hikes and viewing wild flowers), photograpy, writing, and tennis. I am looking forward to explanding this site. My latest endeavor is training to become a docent to lead wild flower walks in Edgewood Park in San Carlos, CA. As of 2007 I have backed off working as a docent. -updated Jan 07. In the summer of 2007 I was invited to take a Schools Attuned course with the possibility that I might receive further training and become a facilitator. Great course, but the administration didn't follow through on the training completion even though they wanted me to assist facilitating. Since then I've built several web sites for friends, and volunteered teaching teachers (former colleagues) web site design. Got my third hole in one two months ago, but couldn't see it because of cataract problems. Eye surgery soon. Peace. -updated April 08
