~ME~

~BRIEF BIO~


~Born on the island of Sicily with 3 sisters.

~I have an A.A.S. degree in Industrial Chemistry from Hudson Valley Community College, Troy, Ny and a B.S., M.S. in Mathematics from Albany State University of New York.

~Along with those degrees, I have an additional 66 credit hours of post masters work at Colgate University, Hope College, Florida State University, University of Maine, State University of New York at Oswego, UMASS, UCONN, and the University of Vermont.

~I Served as Resident Assistant at Albany State University in my senior & graduate years.

~I Have permanent certification from the State of New York for mathematics teaching and also serve as a private mathematical consultant and tutor.

~I worked at Arlington High School as their AP Calculus Teacher and originated the BC Calculus program at Arlington and was an adjunct for Marist College in the Bridge Program during the initial stages.

~During that time, I also was teaching evenings and summers at Dutchess Community College, Poughkeepsie, NY and originated the Calculus III summer course at DCC in the early 80's.

~I am an adjunct at DCC (over 25 years), however, not active at this present time.

~I am presently retired from full time teaching and serve as a free lance mathematics professor at Marist College and at Dutchess Community College.

~After taking a few years off, I started on-campus teaching at Marist College in the Fall of 2002 and at DCC and have been teaching courses for Marist, on-campus, continuously since that time (not active during the Fall 2020-Fall 2023).

~My field of specialization is Calculus Instruction

~My teaching experience includes all levels of Calculus, differential equations, calculus for business applications, statistics, among many others.



~Originally from the Poughkeepsie area, I lived in Las Vegas (mainly for researching the gaming industry) for a short time('97-'98). 


~Aside from teaching, along with writing articles (inspired by many questions students often ask) (see homepage for the link), my hobbies include gaming research, tennis, golf, cooking, collecting offbeat movies, billiards, trading stock options, bridge, & biorhythm analysis.

~I am a mathematics teacher. From experience, I find most students have much difficulty understanding many of the essential concepts needed for a successful completion of a course or for further study in related courses.  Consequently, my goal is to be as effective as possible in the process of communication. Therefore, my research is mainly focused on communicating these skills. Understanding is the key. To achieve this, one must find the most effective way of presenting  and explaining ideas & concepts. This occupies most of my time. 

Teaching is an Art & one must find the best way to present topics & concepts compatable to one's personality. Since the personalities of individuals vary greatly, methods vary greatly among professors. This academic freedom is at the essence of effective teaching. However, I believe there are two main areas of common ground that all educators should have, they are:

(1) a comfortable environment for learning and

(2) a positive and caring attitude on behalf of the educator

Only then, can you solidify the self-motivation required by the student for effective learning.

~I've always enjoyed working with college students and always look forward to helping them achieve their full potential.

~Thanks for your visit.






~HONORS & AWARDS~


ball


EMMA JANE TOUSEY MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP
(Science & Technology)
Hudson High School, Hudson, NY 1961



OMEGA TAU HONOR SOCIETY
(Chemical Technology)
Hudson Valley Community College, Troy, NY 1963



KAPPA MU EPSILON
(National Honorary for Mathematics)
Albany State University, Albany, NY 1965



NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION AWARDS:
Colgate University (Mathematics), 1969
Hope College (Mathematics) 1970
Florida State University (Fellowship - Mathematics) 1972-1973



TEACHING HONORS:
MIT (Twice)
Nazareth College
Cornell University
Williams College
All at Arlington HS, Poughkeepsie, NY for AP Calculus teaching



WHO'S WHO AMONG AMERICA'S TEACHERS:
Twice Selected 1996, 2000



~Non-Academic~


BILLARDS
Hudson city straight pool champion

University at Albany straight pool champion

Straight pool champion (Southern dutchess county, ny)

American pool players association-3 time MVP

American pool players association-Member of national team championships,Las Vegas, NV





DUPLICATE BRIDGE
4 Time local club champion (2 local bridge clubs)(with partner), Las Vegas, NV

3rd place (Southwest regional championships)(with partner)


TENNIS
Semifinalist (Dutchess county championships)(over 35's)