Thaddeus Stevens

Thaddeus Stevens

Thursday, August 30, 2012

KEVIN MCCULLEY

Kevin McCulley is very excited to be tutoring at the Math Lab at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology. Prior to coming to Stevens, Kevin graduated from Ephrata High School in 2005.  He then went to Grove City College to get his bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Secondary Education. Afterward, he has been a substitute teacher who has educated students at many different high schools in the Lancaster area. 
Last spring, Kevin's came to be a part of the Thaddeus Stevens family when his mom, Mrs. Linda McCulley, a math teacher at the school, informed Kevin that the school was looking for someone to watch the lab on Tuesday nights. Kevin quickly jumped at the opportunity, and he has been there ever since. 
This year, the ACT 101 grant that has provided additional tutoring hours to Thaddeus Stevens students he allowed him to increase hours in the lab to 2-8 Monday to Thursday and 10-2 on Satursdays. As a result, he will be available for tutoring five of the 6 days of the week that the lab proudly serves the students of Stevens.
In addition to tutoring at the Math Lab, Kevin plans on continuing to substitute at the local high schools of the area. In his free time, he also enjoys juggling as part of the juggling duo, The DKers.  In addition, he has also started a Survivor Fantasy Football League in the Lab. Should you want to be a part of this competition, feel free to come in and get in on the game! Finally, Kevin wants the students of Thaddeus Stevens to know that if anyone is interested in joining an indoor soccer team this winter, then they can let him know since he is looking to start one.
Kevin looks forward to working with you at the Math Lab in the near future.

STEVE STURGIS

The newest tutor in the Math Lab is Steve Sturgis.  Steve is a professional engineer with licenses in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He's originally from the Reading, Pennsylvania, area, where he graduated from Governor Mifflin High School.  He also graduated from Lehigh University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and a Master of Science in Management Science. 
In addition to his education in engineering, Steve was an ROTC student on campus. After this, he then spent four years in the US Army, where he was stationed in Savannah, Georgia, and the Washington DC area.
Prior to helping tutor Thaddeus Stevens students in the maths and sciences, his business career encompassed 24 years of service with M&M/Mars, working in manufacturing plants in both Hackettstown, New Jersey, and Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania until he retired from Mars in 2005.  In addition to this, his career advancement with this company took him to the M&M/Mars National Office. When his job ended, Steven kept working as a PC Technician for Lancaster General Hospital for 3 years. Here, his roles included that of Industrial Engineer, Shift Manager, Contract Packaging Manager, and Personnel Manager.
Now that his work responsibilities have changed, his dedication to others still goes on. In the past few years Steve has been volunteering as a Mentor at Donegal Middle School, working with 6th and 7th grade students in Math classes. He looks forward to making a difference in your math abilities as you take advantage of all that the tutoring center has to offer you.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

HOW TO NARROW YOUR SEARCHES IN EBSCOHOST AND OTHER DATABASES


First and foremost, putting quotes around terms means that you will search them out IN THAT ORDER ("Reading High School" instead of all high schools that have a reading program).

Second, by looking for full text, you won't get abstracts (150-250 word summaries of what you're reading). This is a very good practice to get into (unless you are trying to figure out if a study will tell you what you want it to).

Third, by looking for articles with references, you will find that you can look up all of the sources that your article used. This is useful for studies on things (for example, seeing the study on Autism that your author is writing about).

Next, by looking for peer-reviewed articles, you will get scholarly documents written by PHDs and guys and gals with masters degrees. This is useful, but this might be a lot of terminology from the field that you aren't familiar with yet. Know what you're using. Make sure that just because PHD Smith knows it, you know it, too. If you don't understand it, it's useless to your cause. Really.

ALSO:

Use AND or + (depending on the engine) to connect words that must be there. (Steroids + baseball)
Use NOT or – to connect words that should not be there. (Titanic – movie)
Use OR if only one of the words must be there in the search.
Use an asterisk (*) to show that any letters can be there after the initials letters. (biolog* for biology and biologists)

Monday, August 27, 2012

DAN GLASS

Dan Glass is also very excited to be a new English tutor at Thaddeus Stevens.
Originally, Dan grew up in Berks County; however, he was able to experience the world when he joined the Air Force and was stationed in the United Kingdom for the better part of 5 years. After getting out of the military, he stayed in country and continued to experience all of the things that England had to offer until he returned to the America that he grew up in 8 months later.
From there, he pursued an associate degree at Reading Area Community College, which he used to complete a bachelor's degree in  high school English education at Alvernia College (now University). In 2010, he also completed his master's degree in education at Alvernia University. Combining these degrees with 3 years of high school education experience and over eight years of college education experience at various schools in the area, Dan has a strong desire to share his love of writing, research, and education with students everywhere - namely the students at Thaddeus Stevens, who he hopes will take advantage of all of the opportunities that the school has to offer them.
In addition to working at Stevens, Dan is an afficianado of travel, hiking, and photography, and he especially loves to explore the many waterfalls that our state parks have to offer. He has seen many of these great natural monuments of Pennsylvania, and he is always trying to find ways to take his wife, Heather, to more of them on their many trips throughout the area. In addition, he is a huge baseball fan and reader / writer / music listener / explorer of American history and culture.
He hopes that he can inspire your educational and / or road trip journeys with the knowledge that he has gained from his many years "on the road!" All it takes is a single step to start your journey, no matter how many steps you have to take!