About Mr. Felling

Family - My wife, Kristen, and I have been married for over 30 years and have two children, Rachel and Brian, both now through college and working.  I was born in Anaheim, California, lived briefly in the Chicago area, but moved to Tempe when I was in 2nd grade, so I'm almost an Arizona native.  My wife is from Grand Junction, Colorado and works as a Dental Hygienist.

Hobbies - My main hobby is doing things with my wife - we love to watch movies and TV, especially British/Canadian/Australian shows, like detective stories and sci-fi!  But I am also a musician (piano, guitar, bass, singing, experimenting with saxophone) and have, at various times, played acoustic guitar around a campfire, played electric bass and lead guitar in a rock band, sang baritone in a barbershop quartet, and played piano for weddings and as a regular accompanist for congregational singing at church. I also enjoy reading, watching movies, and listening to music (pretty much every style except heavy rap.)

Education - I went to Mesa High School, then received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Arizona State University. 20 years later, as part of a career change, I returned to ASU for a Masters in Secondary Education with a specialization in Mathematics.

I have passed the Arizona Educator Proficiency Assessments Tests in Secondary Mathematics (through Calculus) and Secondary Education Professional Knowledge, and meet Highly Qualified standards in Mathematics for No Child Left Behind.  I also have 20 years of experience as an engineer which gives me some insight into how mathematics is used in industry.  This is my 9th year teaching math at Desert Vista, where I have taught Geometry, Honors Algebra 2 (formerly Honors Algebra 3-4), Precalculus, Honors Finite Math/Brief Calculus, and AP Statistics.

Resume and Experience - After obtaining my B.S. in Electrical Engineering, I worked for 20 years in industry as an electrical engineer and software engineer at companies such as Motorola (now General Dynamics), Orbital Sciences Corporation, and Intel Corporation.  I left industry (if you are curious as to why, see 'why I switched from engineering to teaching' below) and started a freelance web-development business which I ran for 5 years, then began substitute teaching, and finally obtained a M.Ed. so that I could teach mathematics full time.  If you are interested in more details, you can explore the following:
My resume (pdf)

My teaching and classroom management philosophy

My goal is to create engaging lessons that ensure students learn the curriculum, as well as the concepts behind the curriculum, while providing a welcoming and comfortable classroom environment in which students can learn.

• Concepts are important - Research has shown that while it is necessary for students to learn procedural approaches to solving math problems, without understanding the concepts behind the procedures, retention and application of knowledge is reduced.  I strive to introduce new topic ideas conceptually first, and then move on to procedural learning as needed.
• Traditional and reform styles each have their place; use both as appropriate - A completely reform-based approach is great for learning concepts, but in my experience, reform based teaching does take additional time to cover material compared to traditional lecture/homework style teaching.  I believe the best approach uses both traditional and reform styles as needed.  Reform is perhaps better at introducing new topics, focusing on concept learning, and learning real-world problem solving / modeling skills.  But some topics are best taught by providing students with lots of opportunities to practice.  I strive to use a mix of traditional and reform style lessons as appropriate.
• Focus on real-world problem solving and helping students understand why math is important - I've found that most students will try more consistently if they understand why we are asking them to learn what they are learning.  Wherever practical, I try to help students understand why math is useful and important beyond simply passing required tests.
• Vary teaching approaches within a lesson and between days - no more than 20 minutes without a 'change' - Research has shown that students respond positively to variety.  I will strive to change what students are doing frequently during class time, with some time devoted to focused learning, some time for less formal practice, some time devoted to individual or group discovery-based activity, and some time spent having students explain their reasoning or share their solutions with the class.
• Meaningful practice - No busywork - Math is not a spectator sport...you can only become proficient at math by practicing until you are proficient. I do assign various in-class or homework assignments so students can become proficient, but I make sure to choose this work carefully so that all work I ask students to do is meaningful and necessary for student success.
• Treat students with respect - I believe it is critical that students see, in their teacher, a good model for how to act respectfully.  I want students to know that, while I am not their friend, I respect them as individuals.  Where possible, I believe in allowing and encouraging students to express their individuality where doing so does not disrupt the learning environment.  I also want students to know that I respect their time...I will strive to make each day's learning meaningful.  Treating students with respect allows me to, in return, require respect from everyone in the class.
• Require respect from students - Students must also demonstrate respect - for the teacher, for each other, and for themselves.  This means that I will hold students accountable to communicate respectfully, to be accepting of all students' individual contributions (regardless of gender, cultural background, or special needs), to comply with all school rules, and to follow directions I give in class.
• Keep students meaningfully busy 100% of the class time - It has been my observation that nearly all misbehavior occurs when students do not have a task before them that they believe is a valuable use of their learning time.  I strive to minimize class time spent on things other than meaningful learning.  I also believe that making lessons engaging and valuable (not entertaining, but effective for learning) helps students to see why they should be using learning time effectively, rather than misusing their time in class.  Creating engaging lessons can help to prevent much misbehavior before it begins.
• Positive reinforcement - As often as practical, I try to make sure students know that I genuinely want them to succeed, not just in math class, but in life.  Encouraging words, pointing out how their choices are affecting their own futures, celebrating victories both in behavior and in academic and other achievements, all help students to see that people notice when they do things well, and that they can trust that what I ask them to do as a teacher is in their best interests.
• Fewer rules, less confrontation, more learning - There are times when misbehavior needs to be confronted, and I strive to do this swiftly, and individually to avoid student embarrassment, but students must understand that learning cannot occur if the classroom environment is disruptive.  As much as possible, I try to establish that we as a class need to have an effective learning environment, so that the learning environment becomes the 'authority', not so much me personally.  I believe this helps avoid having each misbehavior perceived as a personal power-play, helps avoid personal confrontation and makes handling misbehavior less emotional.  As a result, I do not try to establish many small rules which require much time to 'police' or seem arbitrary.  Instead, we keep it simple - 'respect each other, and don't disrupt the learning environment'.

Why I switched from engineering to teaching

People often ask me why I switched careers from engineering to teaching mathematics.  Here are two factors which influenced my decision to switch careers:

• I discovered that I'm passionate about teaching - The biggest factor in my career change is that I discovered that I am even more passionate about teaching than I am about engineering.  Engineering work was interesting and lucrative, but as rewarding as it was to create and improve products for the companies for which I worked, I find it even more rewarding helping young people achieve their goals.
• I believe we face a challenge as a nation to keep up with other nations in math and science - and I want to be a part of helping us meet that challenge.  The worldwide competition our nation's youth will face for jobs in all fields, but particularly in mathematical areas such as engineering and science, and our nation's ability to lead, rather than follow, in new areas of discovery require that we do everything we can to prepare our youth to meet these future challenges successfully.  Fluency in mathematics is a part of meeting that challenge.