I’m a high school dropout who attended Sheridan College for visual arts & photography and then apprenticed as a millwright before finally returning to school to eventually get an Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Guelph with majors in English & philosophy. Since the age of twelve I’ve been coding and building computers and after university I became a certified information technologist. Combining technology with my interests in mechanics, visual arts and writing has been a lifelong pursuit.
Prior to teaching I was employed for a number of years as an IT technician. I lived in Akita, Japan for two years teaching English where I worked primarily on translating technical presentations for doctors and engineers. Upon returning to Ontario in 2002 I became a certified teacher (OCT477065) and have taught in Peel and Upper Grand district school boards.
I currently teach computer technology at CWDHS in Fergus where I’ve been developing a multi-award winning program that has medalled in Ontario Skills Canada competition for IT & networking for the past six years straight. In 2021 we expanded our expertise, winning silver medals in electronics and coding and bronze in GIS & IT. In 2022 we repeated our bronze medals in IT & GIS and won gold in coding, making us the top coding program in the province. We have been developing a unique game development program that achieved a gold medal at Skills Ontario and went on to Skills Canada where we won gold again, making us the top 3d animation high school in Canada! We focus on advanced digital skills in our program that produces excellence in a number of technical and digital arts fields. Teaching and coaching like this lets me continue to pursue my passions for technology enhanced creativity.
We’ve also been multiple national finalists in the CyberTitan National Student Cybersecurity Competition including the Top Defender team in 2021. My computer engineering students have been building virtual reality systems for our school board since 2016 while the digital artists and coders in our software engineering/game development program have been developing and publishing leading edge games for those VR systems and more since 2015. We’re very good at harnessing emerging technologies and are always on the lookout for the next technology breakthrough.
I started riding motorcycles in 2013 and combine this passion with my expertise as a visual artist, technologist and writer whenever I can. Riding a motorbike is one of the most complex and visceral machine interactions I’ve experienced. I’ve spent much of my life nurturing a deep sympathy with machinery, it lies at the core of my technical expertise and has played a constant role in my career. Motorcycling offers me an almost anime-mecha like connected experience with machinery that verges on the sublime.
I’ve come to realize that I don’t think like most people. My ASD tendencies make me chronically shy and I find how people network by excluding others (usually for their own benefit) to be both baffling and inhumane. My own son’s ASD diagnosis has shed light on my own undiagnosed autistic experience. I’ve developed social tools to try and deal with having to work with people but it seldom comes naturally. A good day is one where I haven’t said a word by noon and I can get lost in creative/technical work (I make no distinction). Machines never lie and always want to work with you.
I never thought I’d become a teacher and yet here I am. Teaching can be very satisfying but it never comes easily to me and I find it emotionally exhausting. Being out on the motorbike offers the perfect antidote to the socially demanding and often irrational education industry by giving me space and technical complexity in a mentally & physically demanding activity.