Douglas Ford

718-***-**** ~ ac0iqe@r.postjobfree.com

May 27, 2017

Recruitment Trends

HR Personnel:

With great interest I am applying for the High School Chemistry Teacher position. I’ve worked extensively with children with learning differences at The Summit School and in urban education at American History High School.

Two classes I’d taught at Summit, were like your scholars, bright, but many of the students had learning differences. These 2 classes were prepared for the NYS chemistry regents. I utilize students’ Multiple Intelligences to both drive instruction (please see IAC’s, ABS’ and LOW’s on the resume) and “develop the unique potential of each student”. When I notice a student is somewhat listless or disruptive in class, if I determine his/her medications are not the cause, I study a Multiple Intelligence/Learning Preference Sheet (that I have all my students fill-out the first week of school). From this sheet, I find ways to involve such students in upcoming lessons wherein I plan to ask them to volunteer to do a task that “showcases” one or more of their topics of interest, prior knowledge, intelligences or talents.

Another class, a non-regents chemistry class, had students with more substantial learning disabilities – one English teacher told me this class had such poor retention that often she’d give a review the day before a test and the kids still performed poorly. What I found worked best for this class was to:

1)Teach workshop-model lessons on a 4th grade reading level

2)The students loved to come to the white board, give cloze or multiple choice answers and (what really evidenced the effectiveness of this teaching style ) some explained their answer or solution steps to the rest of the class. In this class of 12, 10 students displayed this paradigm, which every educator loves to see.

3)The other 2 students, however, were too distractible to independently complete many such workshop model tasks, so

a.One was “buddied/partnered” with the top student in the class, which was a very successful grouping.

b.The other, regularly worked with one of the 2 paraprofessionals assigned to this class, which also worked well because in every lesson I provided each para with filled-in cloze answers, my brief solution steps, and of course the same workshop-model or inquiry-based reading assignments to which the students were tasked.

c.Some of my most rewarding moments in my teaching career was seeing these 2 (“a. & b.”) classmates each get 100% or more on a number of tests – and in seeing the disdaining raised eyebrows and vocally expressed disbelief from some of their classmates when I proudly called out their names on different occasions as having the HIGHEST grade in the entire class on one or more tests, as I returned tests to the class.

When I teach chemistry, I find quite a number of students, whether honors, regular, or special needs kids, are kinesthetic learners and love to join or watch me in student/teacher pantomime of molecular/microscopic motions. Such play-acting helps memorialize students’ understanding of invisible or “too small to be seen” phenomena. Pantomime, video simulations (including virtual labs), and student – led demos dynamically engage all students.

Graciously yours,

Doug Ford

Douglas Ford

114-130 230 St. ~ Cambria Heights, N.Y.11411

718-***-**** ~ ac0iqe@r.postjobfree.com

OBJECTIVE: Cultivation of thorough perception of chemistry concepts – coupled with –

Pragmatism by structured laboratory work (to construct subjective

scholarship through experience of relevant, suitable, and pertinent applications of objectively understood concepts)

EDUCATION: 2003 Cambridge College

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Master of Education

1976 Case Institute of Technology

Cleveland, Ohio

B.S. Engineering

NYS and NJS CERTIFICATION: Chemistry and General Science Grades 7 - 12

EXPERIENCE: September 2015 – June 2017

American History High School

Newark, N.J.

Chemistry Teacher 11th Grade

Major Accomplishments:

Incorporated rigorous, clear lab materials/strategies, fostering adept

assimilation and retention of chemistry concepts

Nurtured formative scholastic growth/maturity via regular student

incentives and parent informative updates in this urban environment

EXPERIENCE: November 2013 – June 2014

The Summit School

Queens, N.Y.

Chemistry Teacher of Special Ed Students 11th Grade

Major Accomplishments:

Introduced daily chemistry concepts with diagrammatic (demo, video, or detailed figures/tables) schema to mediate proper concept perception

Furnished paraprofessionals with brief workshop-model based lessons containing both cloze answers and solutions, equipping them to co-teach individuals or small groups

Chemistry labs planned with detailed triumviral tasks (each task modelled at the outset of chem labs) and three-partnered groups alternated in performing the 3 tasks, fostering threefold training and cross-training in measurement labs

September 2000 – May 2012

Russell Sage J.H.S. 190

Queens, N.Y.

Science Teacher 7-8th Grade

Major Accomplishments:

Integrated curricula at a 4th Grade reading level with SETT criteria, resulting in mainstreamed Special Ed students’ mastery of 7th Grade science

Formulated bilingual class work and tests in 7 languages, enabling ESL/ELL students’ mastership of science

Incorporated etymology with all instruction of vocabulary words, ensuring Special Education, ESL, and regular Education students’ fluency in science vernacular used by budding 7th and 8th grade scientists during class discussions

Synthesized a Testing Scheme that tests learners to their strengths, empowering educators to appraise/ascertain real student erudition; affording students a variety of types of tests to “show they know”, developing better student performance on standardized New York State 8th Grade Science tests

September 1997 – June 2000

Count Basie I.S. 72

Queens, N.Y.

Science Teacher 7th Grade

Major Accomplishments:

Initiated tri-fold grouping of students according to the multiplex of differentiated learners to introduce new units or review completed units:

oIAC’s (Illustrators, Actors/Actresses, Cartoonists) – originated unit-based skits and created colorful backdrops for performances

oABS (Architects, Builders, Sculptors) - prepared play- dough models/displays to memorialize student understandings and provided solid, “standing” props (lego, clay, etc.) for the aforementioned IACs’ skits

oLOW’s (Logicians, Orators, Writers) – taught/reviewed lessons, developed acronyms to remember testable quiz/test information, posed as narrators and stagehands for IACs’ skits

Developed a teacher/dean/parent user friendly Section Sheet, categorizing repeated individual student misbehaviors and highlighting marked behavioral improvements

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