Greetings:

I thank Heather and Eric for their kind words, and I especially like Eric's pronouncement: This is not smooth Vanilla Ice Cream..."!

I must, however, add that while Eric is correct that I have been a high school history and special education teacher, I have done very little classroom teaching, in the usual sense of the word, since 1992 and none at all since 1999. From 1992 to 2003, when I retired from the New York City public school sysytem in face of a lay-off, I served first as a teacher trainer, then as a consultant teacher on the development team of a newly organized non-traditional high school, then as a supervisor of special education, an assistant principal, and finally as a supervisor of special education once again. During that time I did get to co-teach a few of classes, mostly in biology and in math. In each case I was the instructional specialist, and I worked along with and advised a content area teacher who actually did most of the direct teaching. One year I did teach an ESL class because no one else could be found, and for a couple of years I taught an elective class in songwriting that met for two and a half hours once a week. Most of my time, though, was spent doing administration, supervision, staff development, program development, and helping get students with disabilities the services they needed and to which they were entitled.

--- Steve