I'm now in my thirteenth year of teaching at Hoover High School in Hoover, Alabama. This will be my fourteenth year as a high school teacher; I have previously worked for Albemarle High School in Charlottesville, Virginia, and for Indian Springs School in Indian Springs, Alabama. I currently teach AP English 11, AP English 12, and Scholars Bowl.

  I graduated with Honors in English from Oberlin College, and hold Master's degrees from the University of Virginia in both English Literature (specializing in the 18th century) and English Education. I consider education to be an ongoing process, and occasionally take classes at UAB to keep up with my field. In past summers I have worked with Young Writers at Kenyon, a summer writing program for high school students. My first (and perhaps only) published work, a book on using drama in the English classroom titled Beyond the Bard, was published in December of 2000 by Allyn and Bacon publishing. (Want to buy a copy? Just ask! :-) )

 A few personal tidbits: 

• I am a National Board Certified teacher in Secondary Education/English and Language Arts, and have held this certification for over 10 years. Teachers and parents interested in learning more about the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards can click here for more information.

• My favorite author is Robertson Davies, author of Fifth Business, What's Bred in the Bone, and The Cunning Man. Gloria Naylor is a close second, particularly her fabulous book Mama Day.
• I once house-sat in what can only be described as the 70s nightmare house.

Of course, I can't do all these things alone. I happen to have been fortunate enough to marry a particularly brilliant, talented, and generally nifty woman named Becki Miller, who pretends to be Rebecca Miller Rutsky, now College and Career Counselor at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, where she is appropriately appreciated. She's way cooler than I am, and is capable of beating me in Scrabble, which is no small feat. The two of us were married on June 6, 1999 at the historic Alabama Theater in a jazz-age themed wedding.

As you can see, the two of us are pretty happy. There are, however, three vicious furballs who do their best to throw a monkey wrench into our happy home--our cats, B Minus, &@cat.com (Ampersand), and Izzy.  Oh, and I have a son, too, but he's not that important.