Bio
I am a 25 year old graduate from William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ and I am currently pursuing the Master of Arts in History program at Montclair State University. At WPU I held a GPA of 3.25 in my major and a 2.96 overall. At Montclair I am currently maintaining a 3.5 GPA in my program.

As a student at WPU I was heavily involved in the student government and in the independent student run Newspaper, the Beacon Weekly. At the Beacon I served as the News Editor and as a staff writer and columnist. I was also actively involved in the Student Government Association. As a Commuter Representative on the SGA, I was charged with representing the needs of over 7,000 commuter students. I worked with the SGA and the WPU administration to effectively address many student concerns and propose and implement a number of solutions. I also served on a number of university committees. I played a leading role on one such committee that was created to address the University party policy, which affected a number of student organizations. Last Spring I also served as an officer on the Graduate Student Organization.

One of the benefits of having dropped the Education program was that I declared a minor in Political Science and took extra courses which allowed me to expand my knowledge of my subject field.

Teaching Experience
My first field experience was at M.J. Ryerson Middle School in Ringwood NJ during the fall 2001 semester. At Ryerson, I observed and taught a few lessons to an 8th grade American History survey course. The bulk of my classroom experience comes from substitute teaching. I began substitute teaching at Ryerson in March 2003 and began substitute teaching in Wayne in September 2003. As a sub, I have dealt with every type of student; from college bound AP classes to students with special needs. I have learned how to respond and adapt to a number of classroom situations. I have also dealt with a number of discipline problems and have been in every classroom situation imaginable. Based on my experiences I have learned that one must always be firm and consistent when dealing with students and that it is critical for the students to know what to expect whether it be in terms of grading or discipline.

I also have had the opportunity to take the first 20 hours of the pre-phase I Alternate Route classes. These classes discussed how to establish and maintain classroom management and helped me develop rules, procedures, and activities I could implement during the first weeks of school.