About Your Teacher

I have been teaching at Wheeler High School since the 2007-2008 school year. During that time, I’ve taught AP Psychology (2007-now), Honors World History (2007-2016), AP World History (2008-2010, 2014-now), as well as AP European History (2016-now). This year is my first year teaching AP Seminar.

I hold a Bachelors of Science in social science education from Kennesaw State University, a Masters of Education in social science education from KSU, a Specialist of Education degree from KSU, and hold a Doctorate of Secondary Education with a concentration in History and a certification in American Studies.

I absolutely love world history, and it is my goal to help you guys to love it too. It’s hard to enjoy dates and people’s names and who-did-what kind of information, so always remember: history is about people, and history wasn’t history when they were alive. They experienced life as we experience it now.

My favorite eras/things to teach are Elizabethan England and Russian History. The reason I enjoy these time periods is because of the personalities and people that lived during them. Queen Elizabeth I was an amazing person (Mary, Queen of Scots not so much, but more on her in a second). The last Tsar of Russia and his family are tragic and compelling people, not just historical figures. Rasputin existed: remember that whenever you get bored with history.

Peter the Great participated in executions and used the execution of one of his mistresses as a chance to inform the gathered crowd of basic upper-body anatomy. Find THAT in a textbook.

If you want a chance to become immersed in history, sign up for an Ancestry.com account. I am not requiring you to do this, obviously, but if you would like a hobby, there’s nothing like amateur genealogy to remind you that history is relevant. Take this guy (click for a larger image on these):

My 32nd great-grandfather was the Sheriff of Gloucester under William the Conqueror. Pretty cool, huh? He also died on Christmas Eve because some jerk shot him in the back of the head with an arrow in an hunting accident. Basically, if that accident’d happened before he had kids, I wouldn’t be here. See? History is relevant.

Other folks that I am related to (click for a larger view)::

(She ticked off the Romans, which is fun)

(If you’re of European descent, chances are good you’re descended from the King of the Franks too)

(He introduced feudalism to France, so you’re welcome, peasants)

Sorry, Saxons.

This is through his illegitimate son, so I sadly am not related to Henry VIII, so I can’t make fun of Henry too much. Mary, Queen of Scots?

I can make fun of her all I like. She’s my cousin (and an idiot).

Of course, the current modern royal line descends from Mary, so Queen Elizabeth II is my 13th cousin, 4x removed. No word as to my position in the line of succession. Thanks to my 9th cousin 8x removed, Queen Victoria, I am distantly related to nearly every royal ruling house of Europe, which brings me back to the last of the Romanovs:

History. It’s pretty cool.