To guide you, to teach you, to help you, to facilitate your learning, to inspire you to learn, to encourage you, to motivate you towards seeking knowledge.

To celebrate with you in your academic successes, to give you a hand up when you don’t score too well on a test. To quiz you until your brain hurts, to reassure you that practice is the only way to make it sink in.

To hold you responsible for tasks to a high enough level so that you will be prepared for the world of work, to point you in the right direction for finding information, to help you see the importance of being curious and inquisitive, to help you understand what (and why) you are trying to learn.

To help you become life-long learners, to help you to be good "team players," to be there as a resource for finding information, to point you in the right direction for finding resources for solving problems that prevent you from learning, to help you succeed!

To give you advice and support when your live is getting in the way - and that happens to all of us from time to time.  Sometimes, things in life get overwhelming - a teacher's job is to help you see that all things pass with time, and that you just have to be patient and persistent.

To help remove the barriers to learning by helping you learn in the style that works for you, and helping you see the value in a variety of learning methods and tools.

To provide the employment communities with competent, eager graduates, who are willing to learn, achieve more, and get the job done!

A Teacher's Mission is NOT:

To spoon feed you, to give you the answers out of the back of the book (and nothing else), to coerce you into answering questions in class, to reward you for laziness, to solve all of your life’s problems, to allow you to distract other people who are trying to learn, to provide employers with incompetent graduates.

To give you all the answers without first making you analyze and interpret the information already given to you.

To "give-away" high grades to all those who only care about grades and numbers, but who have not learned anything.

To police your every action in class as you sit with a silly grin on your face because you found a "cool" web site which has nothing whatsoever to do with contributing to our class or your learning.

In Other Words:

If you want to pay $85 a credit only to sit in front of a laptop computer and play in chat rooms, try to find on-line dates,  get the latest news from your pals on ICQ, download MP-3’s, surf the web, etc… that is YOUR choice - but as the television commercial says, you own your choices.   I am a teacher:   not a police officer, not your mother, and not your babysitter.  This is college level education.  You should be mature enough, and have enough self control at your age to do the right thing.

I will be the teacher who treats all students fairly.

I will be the teacher who nudges you along the pathway to becoming life-long, independent learners.

I will celebrate with great joy when I see the light bulb finally come on, and I will help you up when you seem down, frustrated, and angry.

If your goal in taking my class is to get an "A", with no regard for learning, you’re in the wrong place.  If, however, your goal is to learn and master the subject, don’t worry…. The "A" will follow.

I will not contribute to the "dumbing-down" of America; I will not lower my standards to let you slip through the cracks.

You are responsible for your own learning; I am merely the tool that you will use to find the information you seek. If you don’t wish to seek the information to help you succeed, again, that is your choice - and you alone take ownership for your choice!

You must be willing to look beyond what is in front of you, be inquisitive and curious enough to get more than just the "answers out of the back of the book," to find understanding of the concepts you are being taught.

I am bound and determined to share my knowledge with you, but you have to WANT that knowledge. If I sense your enthusiasm, I will become even more enthused myself, and give you all that I have to give. If I sense your disinterest, I will try my best to motivate you back into the realm of learning, but the desire and willingness to work hard and succeed has to come from you.

"If I give you a fish, you will eat for a single meal. If I teach you how to fish, you will eat for the rest of your life."