Connect Tell us why you became a teacher

I grew up in a family with many educators. Both of my parents were teachers, and so were my grandparents at one time. There were also a few family friends who were teachers at one time in their careers. I wasn't interested in becoming a teacher at first, but I did some volunteer work with some younger kids in our community where I grew up. I seemed to have a knack for organizing activities and relating to the kids. It was around this time I knew what I wanted to do.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

I don't know if it was the most memorable, but there was one experience that stands out. I was a young teacher working in an urban school district in Southern California. We were a title 1 school. Getting kids to come to school and stay in school was sometimes an issue. There was one such student who was interested in the hydraulic systems used in making cars bounce for a science project. We examined the physics behind it, and I could see the "ah-ha" moment in his eyes.

What would you do with the $25,000?

Honestly, after 30 years of teaching, I would like to take my wife on a trip. I've taught all these years about Earth Science and the Pacific Ring of Fire (just to name one topic), but I've never seen many of these places in person. I was thinking of starting in Fiji or the Cook Islands and then making our way to Thailand and then Japan.