Carl Bootinsky (AKA Mr. Booti)

As a teacher of Health and Human Relations in Northern New Jersey (home of the Boss!!), I try to teach kids to keep it real and be safe. I believe in tough love, and I am a Scorpio.

Hazen Devine

Kim Chase

I am currently teaching French at a middle school in Burlington, Vermont. I have taught French, English, ESL and computer literacy. During the course of my career, I have taught on every level from preschool to post-secondary.

I believe an eclectic teaching approach is the best. I am vehemently opposed to any canned methodology.

I look forward to participating in this venture!

Jennifer Ciardelli

After teaching for twelve years in a public high school in Vermont, I have relocated to Washington, D.C. to work in the education division of a museum. Appreciating Sunday's that are no longer filled with the panic of lesson planning/correcting, I am still adjusting to having time during the workday to research, plan and create in her "cubby." Having taught history both in solo and team settings, I  bring my collaborative energies to an environment where I leads tours and programs for various adult audiences, am working on online material development and am encouraged to use my time during the day to read and research strategies and content that will enhance program offerings. Plus, I can now take an hour for lunch if i choose!!!

Brian Dunlap

In high school, I swore I'd never be a teacher because I wouldn't want to have to work with kids like myself. More than two dozen high schools and four states later, I'm still in high school, still working with the disaffected, disenchanted, and disengaged. As dean of students at one of the largest alternative schools in Washington state and director of a regional dropout prevention program, I try to listen to presidential candidates talk about education policy without going postal; communities like FacultyShack keep me sane and hopeful.

Timothy Dyke

I teach high school English at an independent day school in Honolulu, Hawaii. A fiction writer and an amateur actor, I also work in the chapel program at my school where I attempt to create bridges between the institution's spiritual and educational missions. My educational philosophy may grow from my reluctance to cling too closely to educational philosophy, but if I were forced to place myself on any kind of pedagogical spectrum, I suspect I would end up somewhere between Paulo Frieire and the typical staff-member at Enfield Tennis Academy.

Lyn Fairchild

I have taught English and creative writing in public and independent schools and has served as a gifted education resource teacher and a curriculum consultant. Currently, I am the Coordinator of Independent Learning at Duke University's Talent Identification Program overseeing development of courses for gifted youth. I am  co-author of The Compassionate Classroom: Lessons that Nurture Wisdom and Empathy and Teaching Romeo and Juliet: A Differentiated Approach. My lessons are also featured in Differentiation in Practice: A Resource Guide for Differentiating Curriculum, Grades 9-12. I have been a featured writer for FacultyShack. In my spare time I chip away at a novel that is a scandalous expose of faculty lounge politics. I live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with my husband, Greg Hawks, a bluegrass musician, and my orange tabby, Sonny.

Francis Flowers

I am a very busy teacher. I hope that through sharing my thoughts, others can appreciate how much harder I work than they do.

Andy Knote

Nick name: Little Caesar (hot and ready)
Position: high school English teacher
School: University Liggett School
City: Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan
Philosophy: make it sting.

Gary Lichtenstein

Role in education: Consultant, researcher, evaluator. Intellectual interests include mixed method research design, community-based research, engineering education, teacher professional development.
Philosophy: Whatever works; no dogma.

Dan Mindich

I was one of the founding members of FacultyShack, believing then as I do now that teachers gain from discussing the struggles and craziness of the classroom and our lives as teachers. Having been a high school English teacher in Kenya, California, Vermont and Hawaii, I am now back in graduate school getting my Ph.D. education, seeing the world from the other side of the classroom.

Mr. Alden

I've taught for a long time, and let me tell you something. There was no such thing as the good old days. Kids were lazy fifty years ago, they are lazy today, and coddling them doesn't do anyone any good.

Greg Puppione

Born and raised in Southern California, I grew up on smog and Catholic schooling. Though I still suffer from the occasional bout of asthma and guilt, I emerged relatively unscathed. After attending UCSD, I moved to Boston to teach as an AmeriCorps volunteer with an Upward Bound program based out of UMass Boston, serving kids in Roxbury and Dorchester (home of Marky Mark and all 5 members of NKOTB). Deciding that I wanted to take a more serious stab at academia, I went to UC Boulder to get my MA in English, during which time I serendipitously met someone who told me about an incredible mentoring program for young teachers at Punahou School in Honolulu, HI. Much like Rick Kane before me, I ventured off to Hawaii in search of big ways and determined to prove myself to the locals as a soul teacher. Though still not sure what I did right, I was hired full-time at Punahou and taught there for 8 incredible years, until my future wife walked into my apartment one day, and I was lured away from my island in the sun in pursuit of her as she finishes up a graduate degree in NYC. I've spent the last few months in the woods of Maine having a Walden 2.0 experience, and I've recently begun a very different teaching adventure, as a composition instructor with Axia College of the University of Phoenix (if anyone is interested in trying out online teaching, let me know and I can refer you. We get 'finding' bonuses).

With Jack Frost gnawing and gnashing at my heels, ears, and face, I'm giving up on the woods and heading down to the city to be closer to my fiancee. I've only contributed one article to Faculty Shack so far, but I imagine I'll have more time in the coming months to make a few more contributions. I'm looking forward to this next stage in the site's development.

Galen Rosenberg

Two years ago I got an engraved mug for my 20th year teaching English at Los Altos High School. My eldest daughter is a sophomore at UC San Diego and my younger daughter is a junior at Menlo Atherton High School. I've become one of those grey-bearded guys at the far end of the salary schedule, a lot more like the dad than the colleague to the large majority of young teachers we now have in my department. Or to use a different metaphor: Maybe I used to be Roger Clemens on the Shack's staff, but now I'm that wily guy at the end of the bench specializing in knuckle balls and the crazy changeup. It may not be as exciting as it once was, but in many ways it's even more fun.

Eric Savelson

Although in the past I had been a teacher of older elementary kids, my role in education is being a student right now, a student of Kindergartners and Kindergarten teachers. Having just returned to the classroom after two years leave of absence to be with my now four year-old daughter (good training -right? Sort of . . ), I find myself learning a ton everyday. The amazing work I see going on in the classrooms around me and the sheer courage, enthusiasm and caring exhibited by the children in our class is worth studying. It's worth listening to closely- and I am trying to take advantage of the many moments of opportunity presented each day to experience this beginning of school. The children bring so much knowing with them and sponge up so much more during our (hopefully well planned) activities that it is all about getting the ball rolling and staying out of the way (except a nudge here and there).

I am fortunate enough to work in a K-2 school with about 8 or 9 sections per grade level (small class sizes) in a small sub-rural community college town a few hours north of New York City.

Bruce Schauble:

I am currently the Director of Instruction at Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii. My wife and I lived in Hawaii briefly from 1969 to 1971, and then moved to Massachusetts, where I taught in the Canton Public Schools until 1998, when we returned to Hawaii. We have three grown sons. My primary interests include teaching, writing, reading, photography, and music. I used to be a runner, tennis player, and basketball player and coach, as well as a slack-key guitar player, but my body longer allows me to do those things. So now I play piano (badly) and indulge in quieter forms of recreation: walking, poker, chess, Go, and Scrabble.

Recently I've become pretty involved, with a lot of support from my colleagues at Punahou, in exploring the ways in which technology can serve to enhance education. I've always believed that writing is the most powerful self-instructional tool that we have. And I agree with Wallace Stegner when he says, "We do not write what we know; we write what we want to find out." I inherited from my mom an addiction to crossword puzzles, and from my father an inclination toward scrapbooks. His were real; mine are, at this point, taking shape online. I have a blog called Throughlines (http://throughlines.blogspot.com) that started out as an experiment—a friend of mine asked me if I'd ever thought of keeping my journal in the form of a blog, and so I tried it—and it turned fairly quickly into an important arena to collect and extend of my thinking. For a year or more I was writing pretty much every day: more recently I've give myself permission to be more strategic about posting. I tend to let the internal pressure build up until the post feels more necessitated than willed. At least that's the ideal.

Tiger Teacher

I am a tiger who because of land issues in my home area has been forced to come to America. My life is hard here. I face discrimination, and I teach middle school math. My ways are different than yours, and I hope that through discussion I can learn from you, and perhaps you can learn from me. For instance, where I come from any animal is free to hunt any other animal if s/he is willing to take on the risks; here in America you send a much more mixed message. Why?

Becky Wigglesworth

I was on the original FacultyShack team, wordsmithing philosophy statements in Dan's Burlington, Vermont home office. After several years of teaching high school English, I currently teach at St. Michael's College in Vermont. I work with student interns and teach classes on literacy at the middle and secondary levels. With the recent changes in the demographics in the Burlington area, I have had an increased focus on English language learners.

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