Biography

I was a life-long journalist and now, as a second career, have become a middle school English Language Arts Reading (ELAR) teacher. Because my school falls under Title 1 I am the Title 1 English teacher. So in addition to teaching regular classes I co-teach in other classrooms. I started as a newspaper reporter while in college, working part time for The Providence Journal. When I graduated I worked full time for the newspaper and my life as a newspaperman started. From Providence I moved to The Miami News in Florida (now defunct) where I became the night city editor. I then went to the Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky as city editor, the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner as an assistant city editor (that paper is also defunct) then to the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson as assistant managing editor and, lastly, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram where I was laid-off in March '09 as an assistant managing editor. Print journalism has fallen on hard times and many hundreds of journalists throughout the country have lost their jobs in the last few years. I then reinvented myself, studied and took online courses as part of my alternative certification program (ECAP in Fort Worth) and was fortunate to find a position in the Cleburne ISD. Since late April I've taken and passed seven Texas certification examinations and, hopefully, I'll be able to replace my probationary teaching certificate with a standard one next year.