Hello! Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Bruce Becker and I teach 6th grade religion, 7th grade pre-algebra, and 8th grade algebra at St. Joseph's Middle School in West St. Paul. This is my twenty-seventh year teaching. I have been teaching at St. Joseph's School for all but one of those years, and it has been a remarkable path.
I am grateful to be part of this ministry and this community. I am thankful for the students in my classroom and it is an honor to reveal to them the the deep, abiding love and spirituality of our Catholic religion, the art of mathematics, and the useful, practical beauty of algebra. I cannot thank you enough for the privilege of teaching your sons and daughters. Thank you for honoring me with this sacred trust. I am thankful for your confidence in me, and for your prayers.
Over the years, I have kept up well with current research in the field of mathematics education. I have earned not only my master's degree in education, but have gone on to earn over 60 semester credits of graduate school education as well. I have just finished my work with the Murray Institute Cohort #27, a group of archdiocesan middle school mathematics teachers who have taken courses together at the University of St. Thomas over the last two years and have earned Certification in Mathematics Education at the state level. It was a homecoming of sorts for me, as St. Thomas is also where I earned my bachelor's and master's degrees.
Outside of my work teaching the students of St. Joseph's parish, I have had many adventures. Notably among these was having been chosen by the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama as a participant in the Space Academy for Educators in 2005. The next year, I was chosen as one of only sixteen educators worldwide to participate in the first ever International Advanced Space Academy for Educators in 2006. For the next three summers, I was employed by the U.S. Space & Rocket Center as a teacher counselor, conducting a workshop entitled "NASA's Engineering Design Challenge for Thermal Protection Systems" and also training others on the flight decks of various Space Shuttle Orbiter Simulators. I was able to be of service to teachers in 36 different countries and all fifty states. I even had the marvelous experience of teaching the "Teachers of the Year" from all fifty states!
I am also grateful for the great variety of other experiences that I have enjoyed. For three summers, I interned with the 3M Corporation in Maplewood, once in their Marketing Department (1992), and once in their Research and Development, Thermal Processing Department (2000). In the summer of 2014, I worked at 3M once again, this time in the Corporate Materials Research Laboratories. All these opportunities were offered to me through their TWIST program (Teachers Working in Science and Technology).
I was the recipient of the Ashland Corporation "Golden Apple" award in 1996, and have been included in the publication "Who's Who in American Teaching".
I have also chaperoned many trips to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness with high school students.
I enjoy bicycling in good weather, reading, listening to music, studying chess, and of course, teaching! I live three blocks away from school with my wife, Lisa, the German teacher at Cretin-Derham Hall, and also with my big tomcat, named Story (after Space Shuttle Astronaut Story Musgrave) who causes no end of both mirth and trouble!
I am grateful to be part of this ministry and this community. I am thankful for the students in my classroom and it is an honor to reveal to them the the deep, abiding love and spirituality of our Catholic religion, the art of mathematics, and the useful, practical beauty of algebra. I cannot thank you enough for the privilege of teaching your sons and daughters. Thank you for honoring me with this sacred trust. I am thankful for your confidence in me, and for your prayers.
Over the years, I have kept up well with current research in the field of mathematics education. I have earned not only my master's degree in education, but have gone on to earn over 60 semester credits of graduate school education as well. I have just finished my work with the Murray Institute Cohort #27, a group of archdiocesan middle school mathematics teachers who have taken courses together at the University of St. Thomas over the last two years and have earned Certification in Mathematics Education at the state level. It was a homecoming of sorts for me, as St. Thomas is also where I earned my bachelor's and master's degrees.
Outside of my work teaching the students of St. Joseph's parish, I have had many adventures. Notably among these was having been chosen by the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama as a participant in the Space Academy for Educators in 2005. The next year, I was chosen as one of only sixteen educators worldwide to participate in the first ever International Advanced Space Academy for Educators in 2006. For the next three summers, I was employed by the U.S. Space & Rocket Center as a teacher counselor, conducting a workshop entitled "NASA's Engineering Design Challenge for Thermal Protection Systems" and also training others on the flight decks of various Space Shuttle Orbiter Simulators. I was able to be of service to teachers in 36 different countries and all fifty states. I even had the marvelous experience of teaching the "Teachers of the Year" from all fifty states!
I am also grateful for the great variety of other experiences that I have enjoyed. For three summers, I interned with the 3M Corporation in Maplewood, once in their Marketing Department (1992), and once in their Research and Development, Thermal Processing Department (2000). In the summer of 2014, I worked at 3M once again, this time in the Corporate Materials Research Laboratories. All these opportunities were offered to me through their TWIST program (Teachers Working in Science and Technology).
I was the recipient of the Ashland Corporation "Golden Apple" award in 1996, and have been included in the publication "Who's Who in American Teaching".
I have also chaperoned many trips to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness with high school students.
I enjoy bicycling in good weather, reading, listening to music, studying chess, and of course, teaching! I live three blocks away from school with my wife, Lisa, the German teacher at Cretin-Derham Hall, and also with my big tomcat, named Story (after Space Shuttle Astronaut Story Musgrave) who causes no end of both mirth and trouble!