Introduction (EDU 6524)

My name is Brian Elsner and I am taking this course as part of the Masters of Arts in Teaching (MAT) portion of the Alternative Routes to Certification program at Seattle Pacific University. I am 31 years old and happily married to my wife Dana for almost two years now. On May 2 we welcomed our first child, Lincoln, into the world and it has been a fantastic ride so far!

My son Lincoln and I

I will be entering my fourth year teaching at Seattle Prep. I teach in the Social Studies department and serve a number of different roles on campus. We have a class called Collegio for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors that is an integrated English and History course. I teach both freshmen and juniors. Additionally, I helped design the curriculum for a senior course that is now one year old called Senior Seminar. My particular seminar is Ecology, Economics and Ethics and focuses on the global water crisis, while serving as a capstone to the four year experience at Seattle Prep. It focuses on the ideals of a Jesuit education and how students can become agents of change in the world. As I helped in the formation of this course, I used backward design to develop this curriculum. While this proved to be rewarding, working with three other teachers proved to be very challenging (especially the one who said he didn’t believe in backward design). I am looking forward to seeing how it compares to this class as well.

 

Additionally I am the Associate Head Coach of our boys varsity basketball team, serve as National History Day coordinator, freshmen class moderator, tech committee member and on a diversity committee as well. This keeps me very busy at Seattle Prep! I completed the ARC certificate portion this school year and look forward to completing my Masters this summer.