Howdy,
After 23 years in Telecom building the internet and email, I observed that the front line personnel that I was hiring didn’t have what I considered to be skills that they should be bringing to the table. I began investigating why, and that led me to high school. Alas, I began my journey in Education in 2010 inhabiting the classrooms of Lovejoy High School, where my two daughters attended.
I redubbed my PreCalculus course as Problem-Solving with Brooks and was also afforded the opportunity to lead a wonderful Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Principles of Engineering (PoE) course which is a project-based learning survey of the engineering discipline.
Since the Summer of 2015 I have been privileged to work with the Texas A&M Sketch Recognition Lab (TAMU SRL) to evaluate a couple of online tutorial tools (Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS)) currently under development, Mechanix and PerSketchtivity, that provide immediate constructive feedback to the students and student-level metrics to the instructors. I presented on this work at the state and national PLTW Conventions and at CPTTE in 2016.
I also spent 5 semesters beginning the Fall of 2015 taking online courses learning how to construct and deliver online courses. This resulted in a MSEd from Purdue University in Learning Design and Technology (LDT).
This widely varied background prepared me well for my next big adventure. Beginning in August 2018 I became the Texas A&M Professor of Practice for the Texas A&M Engineering Academy at Blinn College in Brenham. TAMU Engineering Academies are an innovative approach to providing the planet with more Aggie Engineers.
In Fall 2023, I transitioned to the College Station campus as part of the First-Year Engineering Program where I guide students through their first two years through course instruction.
I am a technology learner and, while teaching high school, had been a regular presenter at the state TCEA (Texas Computer Educator Association) convention and PLTW state convention each year. Now in higher education, my forum of choice is ASEE (American Society for Engineering Education).
Currently, my eldest daughter (Shelby – Lovejoy Class of 2013) is active in the Communications industry having secured her Masters degree in Strategic Communications from TCU. The youngest (Clancy – Lovejoy Class of 2016) earned History and English degrees at the University of North Texas followed by a MA Teaching degree from UNT as well, and is now teaching English at Bryan High in Bryan, Texas.
My wife, Pam, has many years and roles in secondary and higher ed Science education, helped launched the Lovejoy ISD secondary program, and is now an engaged member of the Texas A&M Spark K-12 Outreach team.
My foundations were set by an upbringing on the family ranch near Joshua, Texas and 4 memorable years at Texas A&M where I met my wife, I led Bugle Rank #7 in the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band (Class of ’86 Whoop!), and dove into Telecom Engineering. Once in Telecom, my learning continued at MCI, Vartec, and Charter.