WWF-OTS Costa Rica
2000
Miles Robinson
Contents
Work Information
Job Title
Science and Computer teacher
Key responsibilities
Arrive to School before the students
Make a reasonable attempt to file paper work properly
Assist teachers with computer projects and problems
Teach science to sixth grade girls
Department or workgroup
Science Dept.
Computer Dept.
Sixth-Grade Team
Contact Information
E-mail address
Mrobinson@cranbrook.edu
Office phone
(248) 645-3420
Current Projects
Study
of the Rouge River on Cranbrook Campus
Biographical Information
I was raised in California in the geographic center of the state in a small town whose motto is “On the way to everywhere.” Home of Gallo Wine, and the largest fruit canneries in the world, and people all going to “everywhere” else. I attended Modesto Junior College, Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, and finally The University of California at Santa Barbara, before taking a job for the City of Modesto in the Water Quality Control facility as a chemist. Six years with out a summer break led me to the conclusion that I was not cut out to be a chemist inside a lab for 8 hours a day, five days a week.
Already a rabid anti-automobile bicycle riding activist, I quickly retooled my skills and became a professional bicyclist, leading self-contained bicycle tours across the United States for Bikecentennial. I also taught leadership training classes with them, did research for bike trips, taught adult cycling at the local Junior College in Modesto, California. I also took classes in industrial arts learning to build bicycle frames. My own bicycle company contracted with a private school to take high school students on a self-contained bicycle trip in Florida. This experience led me to see that to get the long sought summer vacation I needed to join the academic world.
Two years later, substituting in middle schools in the area to support myself, I gained a California Multiply and Single subject (general science) certificate and entered the world of elementary education at a very small rural school in the Central Valley of California. Summers were taken up with workshops and college classes and I became a writing mentor and computer mentor for my district. After six successful years as a 4-6-grade teacher I graduated to the middle school level and transferred to a new middle school, Hanshaw Middle School in Modesto, California.
Hanshaw Middle School was a dream school, experimental in its approach to teaching some of the toughest students in California. The population was 60% Hispanic, 20% Asian, 10% African American, and the rest “other”. I taught a core integrated class of math/science to 38 limited and non-English speaking seventh grade students. This was a wonderful and very rewarding experience for five years.
In 1995, after accumulating a wife, two very cute daughters, a cat and a car it was time for a change. My wife and I applied to teach at Cranbrook Educational Community in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, the school my wife and her mother graduated from. We were both hired and now reside in Bloomfield Hills. I teach science at Kingswood Girl’s Middle School and have only girls in my class room. This is an unbelievable school and is heaven for a teacher.
During the course of my educational career I have done presentation at the district, local, state and national level on science, math, and writing. I have been the head of computers at Fairview Elementary, head of the Math/Science department at Hanshaw Middle School, and am currently the Computer resource person at Kingswood Girl’s Middle School. I run marathons, do triathlons, have climbed six 14,000 ft mountains in California, and traveled to South America and spent a month climbing including scaling Aconcagua, 24.000 feet the highest point in the western and Southern Hemisphere. I enjoy cooking and eating which accounts for the vigorous activities.
I love to teach and believe in my heart that children are our future. To change the world, change yourself, then point a child in that direction by example. With eager, excited, and motivated children, there is so much hope for the future.
Please check my web page for more information about me and Costa Rica:
http://sites.netscape.net/meters1600m/index.htm
Personal Interests
Bicycle Riding
Mountain Climbing
Backpacking
Running