Teaching is like guiding a mountain climbing expedition: you have to gather data, form a plan of attack, and take into account the differing capabilities of the team members. In this case you're aiming for the summit but your plan of attack doesn't just involve daily classwork and homework but also attacking complacency, creating independent thinkers, and teaching team members how to assimilate complex information so they may make informed decisions for life. As the guide, you can lead the charge, you can help each expedition member maneuver obstacles, you can dust them off when they fall, you may even be able to carry them for a short distance, but you can't carry them through life-  students have to learn the skills so they can conquer the mountains on their own.

 

A  native Texan and "Fightin' Texas Aggie" whose 20 year career in high tech led to her inadvertent wandering around the world and living all over the western US, I always felt most at home in the mountains and when getting to "hang out" with kids and animals.

 

We adults can be complicated whereas children are just nebulae- young stars- waiting to shine full force. Working with children and helping them learn that 'Science is everywhere and is everything!' isn't a job, it's a delight.

 

I enjoy spending my free time "doing outdoorsy stuff" in the Ruby Mountains with my family, 6 rescue dogs, and menagerie of horses.