Teaching students to think for themselves.

A classroom shaped by philosophy, not just content

That idea has shaped the way I teach. I care deeply about technical skill, but I also care about the habits underneath it. I want students to ask sharper questions, notice assumptions faster, and become more comfortable thinking through uncertainty instead of waiting for someone else to hand them the answer.

That is why my classes often connect computer science to bigger human questions. We talk about representation, systems, choices, logic, language, identity, ethics, and the strange gap between what technology can do and what people should do with it. Sometimes those conversations come through code. Sometimes they come through a thought experiment, a paradox, or a simple question that refuses to leave the room.

I do not want students leaving class with a folder full of finished assignments and no deeper framework for seeing the world. I want them leaving with stronger judgment.

How my classroom works

I try to build a room that feels alive. Less passive. Less worksheet driven. More discussion, more experimentation, more visible thinking. Students learn best when they can act, get feedback, revise, and immediately see the consequence of what they just did.

That is one reason computer science is such a powerful medium. You type something, run it, and the computer answers honestly. It does not flatter you. It does not guess what you meant. It gives you feedback, and that feedback becomes part of the learning.

• Students collaborate, explain ideas to each other, and learn that being helpful is a real advantage in life.
• Projects are designed to feel worth doing. I want less fake school energy and more genuine engagement.
• Discussion matters. The best moments in class often begin when a student says, “Wait, but what if…”
• Progress is visible. Students should be able to see themselves getting better, not just hope they are.

Why I care so much about computer science

Computer science is not just about learning a programming language. It is a way of learning how modern systems work, how instructions become outcomes, how information is represented, and how small choices can produce huge downstream effects.

When students learn to code, they are also learning precision, sequencing, pattern recognition, debugging, and patience. They are learning how to break a problem into parts. They are learning that vague thinking creates vague results. They are learning that if they want a machine to do something useful, they have to become clearer themselves.

That is why I take representation seriously. A picture on a screen, a sound in a speaker, a sentence in a chatbot, a game, a website, a robot movement, all of it comes back to information, structure, and logic. Once students really feel that, the world starts to look different to them.

AI belongs in school, but students need more than access

We are living through a shift that is too big for schools to ignore. AI is already changing how people write, search, plan, analyze, and create. Students need experience using these tools, but they also need judgment. They need to know when AI is helping, when it is flattening their thinking, and when they are outsourcing something they should still know how to do themselves.

I am interested in teaching students how to use AI as leverage, not as a crutch. That means prompt design, verification, revision, and knowing that a confident answer is not the same thing as a correct answer. It also means helping students understand that their own brain still matters. A lot.

What students build

I want students creating things they can point to. Not just completing invisible exercises and moving on. Depending on the course or unit, that can mean code, graphics, animations, logic puzzles, simple games, web pages, robotics challenges, collaborative problem solving, or AI driven projects that ask students to think harder about the process behind the result.

• Programs that draw, move, respond, and reveal whether the logic actually works
• Projects that connect computer science to entrepreneurship, design, systems thinking, and communication
• Interactive work where students get immediate proof that their thinking changed the outcome
• Moments where students explain their reasoning to a classmate and realize they understand more than they thought

I am especially drawn to work that helps students feel the bridge between abstract ideas and concrete results. A line of code becomes a shape. A variable changes a pattern. A sequence becomes behavior. An idea becomes something real.

Why middle school matters so much

Middle school is one of the most important stretches in a person’s life. Students are old enough to think in interesting ways, but young enough that their habits, identity, and relationship with challenge are still highly moldable. This is where a lot of people quietly decide what kind of learner they think they are.

I take that seriously. I want students to leave my room with more confidence in their ability to figure things out. More tolerance for mistakes. More respect for their own mind. More willingness to stay with a hard problem instead of ejecting the second it gets uncomfortable.

A good class can change what a student believes about themself. That is never a small thing.

Outside school

Outside the classroom, I am drawn to lifting weight. Tennis. Reading. Building projects. Training my dog Pixie. Thinking through ideas that sit at the intersection of technology, psychology, money, behavior, and meaning.

I like writers and thinkers who make complicated things clearer without draining them of depth. I like systems that reward patience, experimentation, and judgment. I like work that feels human instead of polished into emptiness.

What drives me now

I care about making learning feel more real. More modern. More connected to the world students are actually entering. I want to keep building classrooms and digital tools that respect students’ intelligence while helping them become more capable, more articulate, and more self directed.

The long game is simple: help young people become harder to fool, harder to discourage, and more able to build a life with intention.