My name is David Dror, and I will be the Biology Teacher for the rest of the semester.  My background is in Astronomy, Physics, Math, and Libraries, but Karen Boerup has left me with more than sufficient material for me to be able to teach Biology effectively for the rest of the semester.

Personal Background:

I was born in Washington DC, but only lived there until I was 3.  After that my family (both of my parents are professors), bounced around between Beer-Sheba, Israel, and Montreal, Canada.  We moved to Tucson when I was in 5th grade, and with the exception of a year in high school when my parents took a sabatical in Paris, and when I was an undergrad in upstate New York, I have been in Tucson ever since.  I graduated high school from UHS.

Educational Background:

I have a degree in science teaching from the U of A, a degree in Astronomy from Cornell University, and a Master's Degree in Library Science from the U of A.

Hobbies:

In my spare time, I enjoy reading, primarily science fiction and fantasy, hanging out with friends, and hiking.  When I'm hanging out with friends, we often play computer games, watch anime and movies, or play board games or cards.

I am also going to be the faculty sponsor for the Chess Club at least until the end of the semester, which will be meeting in my classroom during my office hours.  If I have the time I'm going to try to introduce them to Go (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(game) ), a game I enjoy even if I haven't mastered it.

Religious Background:

I am an Orthodox Jew.  Irrespective of this fact, I respect all other religions, and therefore will support students adhering to the Catholic practices of this school.

A bit of Educational Philosophy:

The key to science, and its advancement, is the process of asking questions, ideally good ones.  However, in order to ask useful questions, you need to ask a lot of useless questions, and so asking lots of questions, useful and useless, is necessary.  On another note, a key to education is also asking questions.  Finding the right question to ask the students so that they can figure things out for themselves is very rewarding.  When students ask questions, it helps the entire class, since other students have those same questions, and it shows me where they are and what they are thinking.  This means questions should be encouraged.  What this means in practice is that you should feel free to ask me questions about Biology, Science, myself, or Judaism, and I will do my best to answer as honestly as I can.  My email is ddror@salpointe.org .