This is my second year with the California Virtual Academy, and I think it is the greatest place to be for parents, teachers, and students who are serious about education but who also want to have a great time learning.  I taught in the public school since 2005 in grades 1, 5, 10, 11, and 12.  In the upper grades, I was a High School Language Arts teacher and specialized in British Literature.  My YouTube Channel is still up from that time where I have over 100,000 views and over 500 subscribers.  Students are still learning from me from all around the world!

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I love integrating technology into education.  I learned all about computers as a multimedia specialist and non-commissioned officer in the US Army.  I learned to make training movies on the desktop computer and at the same time served as the personal bodyguard and combat Humvee driver for the Battalion Commander.  Our job was to go into the combat zone and set up communications arrays so the soldiers and officers can talk to each other on a secured network.  It’s kind of like when you use FaceTime or text your friends, except only the US Army can decode the message because, without the proper security key, the messages are all scrambled.  This is so the enemy cannot know what we are going to do next.

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Before  I joined the Army, I attended Community College in Mission Viejo and in Irvine.  I wanted to become a police officer at the time, so I earned an Associate’s degree in the Administration of Justice.  However, I decided that I wanted to become a digital artist instead of being a cop, so I ended up joining the Army so I can get money for college.  When I finished the Army in 2002, I moved here to Riverside and attended the Univeristy of California, Riverside.  My family and I lived right on the campus in family housing. I remember jumping on my bike and riding into my first class in less than five minutes!  Or sometimes, I would use a folded up Razor© scooter and rode that to each of my classes.  I spent most of my time attending lectures, doing my homework, writing stories about ghosts and pirates, and working a part-time job driving students with disabilities around campus.  After driving Humvees in the Army, I still felt the need to drive, so I certainly enjoyed driving the University’s little electric cart all around campus. I knew all the paths and hidden walkways.  After four years there, I received a Bachelor’s degree in Teaching and Creative Writing and then I stayed another year and got a Masters Degree in Education.  Later on, I attended a private college specializing in multimedia skills called Full Sail University, and I received a Masters degree in Educational Media Design and Technology.

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When I am not teaching, I am spending time with my wife and two daughters.  We are very involved with our local church, and we enjoy going to restaurants like Outback and Chili’s.  We love to laugh, ask questions, and make jokes.  My wife is a certified court reporter and works in a California Superior Court.  She enjoys traveling and maintains a women’s spiritual blog called takethree.faith. My oldest daughter is Victoria. She is 15 years old and is a sophomore in High School. She loves the theater and is the secretary for the Theater Club and also performs in Show Choir.  My youngest daughter is Rachel, she is 9 years old and is in fourth grade. She loves to play piano, dance, and play games on her iPad such as Animal Jam and Minecraft.  She also plays lots of video games with me like Overwatch, World of Warcraft, and Heroes of the Storm.  We both love games from Blizzard, and we like to go to Blizzcon and to game tournaments around the country.

Wishing everyone the best in our learning adventures,