Nancy Dibble

Teaching keeps me thinking, learning and growing and that is why I love it! I have been teaching for over 40 years with 21 of those years in a formal classroom and 19 years in extra-curricular teaching areas. I have taught Biology, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Anatomy and Physiology, Ecology, AP Environmental Science, Senior Project Class, GATE Science, SDAIE Integrated Science, and Physical Science. The majority of my classroom teaching has been in low-income high schools where most of my students are second language learners. I have also had the opportunity to help design and start a project-based learning, charter school in Clovis, California. It was a tremendous learning experience to teach in an innovative, project-based learning environment for the 8 years that I worked at this school. I learned how to write an integrated project that included English and two Sciences, kept students engaged and on task and had relevance to real-world experiences. This experience forever changed how I design my lesson plans. I work diligently to include real-world applications in as much of my teaching as possible. I appreciate what my students have taught me and I continue to learn from them. They have taught me why they join gangs, why it is often difficult to stay in school, why they drop out, and what helps them succeed in the face of very difficult situations. I love to teach because it is a dynamic, reciprocal relationship between me, my students and my colleagues where I continue to learn more and more every day.