I’m realizing as I type this that I have been a Special Educator teacher since before many of my colleagues were born (31 years, 26 of which have been here at Vernon)!  I fell in love with special education from the very start of my teaching career and have never looked back.
As a person who thrives on spontaneity, I remember a time when I was peer training with Mr. Stetzel (you remember John). I had given John the lesson plans that he was to observe me teaching that morning. Within seconds of the students’ arrival, I had to completely revise the plans due to crises, absence, student understanding (or lack thereof), etc.  As the dust of the morning settled, John said to me, “What just happened? You just taught stuff off the top of your head that wasn’t even in the lesson plans I was supposed to be observing!” All I could say was, “Welcome to my world, John.”

Special education has a rhythm and a way of  thinking that is somewhat out of the ordinary relative to the typical classroom.  I guess I’ve always been a bit of an “out of the box” person, so special education has been the perfect fit.
When I’m not teaching, I work on an aging farm house in the center of Northfield, listen to music or read (mostly theological books along the lines of my Christian faith).  My wife, Judi, is a longtime social worker in Brattleboro, so I hope you can consider us as honorary Vermonters, even though we are life-long Massachusetts flatlanders.  I have two adult daughters, one of whom (Rachel Foster) is currently working as a paraeducator here at Vernon. The other (Sarah) is an administrative assistant at Smith College in Northampton. I won’t bore you with horror stories about my dogs or with quoting song lyrics from my immense CD collection, at least not at this time.