Teacher
Santa Maria Middle School
Charles has had the distinct opportunity of growing up from coast to coast, during which he accepted that people are lifelong learners. He was born on a Marine Corps base in North Carolina and moved every three years all the way through high school. This gave him life experiences that elude so many, like walking (racing sometimes) up the stairs of the Washington Monument. He went to elementary school in a lower middle class neighborhood outside of Washington DC, junior high in a low income area in North Carolina, finishing high school in a middle class area in the North part of Phoenix, Arizona at Paradise Valley High School. In between these civilian experiences, he lived on military bases in Nevada, North Carolina, and in Southern California.
Charles joined the Marine Corps at 17, then “retired” when he was 38. During this phase of life, he traveled the globe and met interesting people like Ferdinand Marcos while stationed in the Philippines, Janet McCoy (the last High Commissioner of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands), John McCain, and even befriended a local yakuza leader in Japan. He stood in the pit on Titian where the atomic bomb “little boy” was loaded into the Enola Gay, walked the beach on Wake Island, bought handmade soap in Yap, and visited the DMZ in South Korea. After serving in Desert Storm, he concluded his military career as a TAMPS instructor (Tactical Aircraft Mission Planning System) for MAWTS-1 at MCAS Yuma, AZ.
Immediately after departing the Marine Corps, Charles earned a Baccalaureate of Science in Aviation management from Southern Illinois University. He went into law enforcement with Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, but after a couple years, he wanted something more so he tried retail management. Charles had been hired to fire the non-compliant. Although he was efficient at his job, he wanted to help young people - not fire them and remembering teaching a group of 8th graders (for ten days) while stationed in Japan, he changed gears. Charles became a civics teacher and during his second year teaching, he earned my MA Ed. with a 4.0 and was named the class Honor Grad. That year, he was made team lead at his school for the first time. During his fifth year teaching, Charles earned an MA Ed Admin through Grand Canyon University. He remains in the classroom with his students as he finds joy in connecting kids with an understanding of how our government was created and continues to work. Charles has been using We The People (WTP) for many years now and sincerely believes it is a great tool for all his students (GATES, SpEd, and ELL).
