Meet Peter Knowles, teacher...
"The first time I ever used a computer was in 1984, when I enrolled in a novel-writing class at the University of Washington. . . . the promise of something they were calling "word processing" lured me down to a little second-floor shop. I took a free tutorial to learn how to use their rental machines and the program WordStar. I was so impressed with the possibilities . . ."
-- Peter Knowles, from A Technology Odyssey
Peter began teaching at Columbia High School in 1992 after a two-year stint at a Seattle, Washington middle school. Over the past ten years his assignments have included American Government, World History, Journalism, US History, World Geography, American Literature, Introduction to Speech, General English, and Creative Writing. In the fall of 1998 he began teaching a new course he helped develop, called Foundations of the Social Studies.
He has been active in several curriculum committees:
- Membership in a district-wide Language Arts curriculum review committee that created a curriculum guide tied to state Language Arts Essential Learnings
- Curriculum development for new courses: World History/World Literature "Link" class (10th grade) and Foundations of Social Studies (9th grade)
- Pilot program integrating Language Arts, Social Studies, Math and Science (7th grade)
- Design and implementation of district-wide writing assessment using six-trait analysis
Peter has been using computers throughout his ten years in the classroom. He has participated in two grant-funded classroom technology integration projects that have provided him with a well-equipped classroom and plenty of technology-related professional development. He has also served as chair for district committees on technology inservice and technology ethics.
His extracurricular responsibilities include: Drama, Journalism/Yearbook, Future Problem Solvers Club, and community soccer coach.