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Hi, I'm Ryan!

​Though I’ve been a high school English teacher for years, I'm a camp counselor at heart. I love kids, and have always gravitated towards young people. I love fresh ideas, curiosity, and the creativity that comes from being totally immersed in learning. 

I’m married to an amazing partner and wicked Chef, Liz and together we have a 4 year old daughter, Lily, who is a total goofball and my inspiration to rediscover the world.

Touro’s Innovative Learning Program has been a great place to learn about the emerging technologies that are transforming the classroom. The program teaches “action research” in a way that transforms how you think about teaching, and indeed, knowledge building. ​I can’t recommend this program enough, especially to Napa teaching professionals who can benefit from the NapaLearns grant!

Lasting Learning from the Innovative Learning program

Life happens in research cycles, whether we know it or not. Parents especially are aware of this as we watch our kids test the world, constantly changing their approach to discover what works. As humans, we are awesome at recognizing patterns, and constantly evaluating our world. Put these two things together, and we have a recipe for Action Research. 

Touro's Innovative Learning Program helps illuminate this process so we can be explicit about it. We start with curiosity, test an idea, and measure it's effectiveness. Then we ask why it happened or what made it effective? Finally, we test another idea. 

As teachers, we are constantly looking to serve our students with fidelity to their ever-changing diversity. No two students learn in exactly the same way, which makes teaching thrilling and frustrating. We are always looking to put a system around an untamable beast.