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As a church youth group leader, 4-H junior leader and teen center drama director, Mr. Van Buren has always enjoyed guiding a group, sharing information and ideas with others and discovering what everyone can do together in a common positive effort. As a graduate student, San Francisco State College hired him as a Properties Technical Assistant to instruct students in the construction and handling of properties for their theater production's department. After San Francisco State College, Mr. Van Buren continued to teach students as the Technical Director for Pinecrest '72, a summer theater camp run by Columbia Junior College District in Sonora, California.
After student teaching at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, California, Mr. Van Buren received his credential in English and was fortunate enough to obtain a teaching job in Glendale, California at Hoover High School. Mr. Van Buren taught English, Drama and Stage Crew at Hoover High School for three years. As Hoover High School's only Drama teacher, he directed comedies like Neil Simon's Rumors and Fools. Mr. Van Buren also directed Wild Oats and The Butler Did It. The musical, Little Shop of Horrors was one of Mr. Van Buren's best directorial accomplishments at Hoover High School in Glendale, California.
In Arizona, Mr. Van Buren has taught at Paradise Valley High School for seven years handling Freshman English, Sophomore English, and Advanced and Honors Sophomore English. Mr. Van Buren served one year as an Interdisciplinary Team Leader. The following year he was the Instructional Specialist for the English Department, and this last year, he served as the English Department Chairperson during the English Textbook Adoption process and the department's Curriculum Alignment to the new district English Scope and Sequence. Mr. Van Buren loves Paradise Valley High School, his students, the wonderful colleagues there and Paradise Valley High School's principal, Miss Denise Birdwell.
Mr. Van Buren first started working on his Masters Degree in Secondary Education with an emphasis in technology at ASU West with Dr. Alice Christie in her EMC 598 class on Internet Technology. In the summer of June 2000, he completed a multimedia project on George Orwell's novel, 1984 using Power Point, Adobe Image Ready, iMovie, and Hyperstudio . Mr. Van Buren now uses this project in his classroom every semester. In the summer of June 2001, Mr. Van Buren completed a Web Quest on the Controversial Issue of Gun Control with a connection to the Six Traits of Writing. Improving student writing and Writing Across the Curriculum are important goal areas at his high school. He will complete his masters program in two years. Every class with Dr. Christie has challenged Mr. Van Buren to use technology more extensively in his English classroom and at his school site. Dr.Alice Christie is a wonderful instructor and an inspirational leader for technology in the classroom.