Persona Vitae
I find it helpful to provide some pertinent information to those who ask about my qualifications... so here goes.
Experience: I have taught for a total of 15 years, mostly at the middle school level. I am certified by the State of Florida, and considered highly qualified in the fields of Biology, Language Arts (6-12), Social Sciences (6-12), and Middle grades science (5-9).
Education: I am degreed from the University of Central Florida, with a Bachelor's Degree in Science. I also earned an Associate's Degree in Education from Daytona Beach Community College. I hold a special certification from Beijing Univesity, Beijing China, as well as special certificates from The University of Florida in Teaching aabout Asia, and from the Northrop Grumman/ NASA in suborbital zero gravity flight.
I spent 3 years working on Appledore Island as part of Cornell University's North Atlantic research program. While there, I studied dolphin communication and physiology. I have also participated in Dolphin research through the Institute in Marathon, Florida. In addition, I have worked with NASA and Keystone Institute on projects for missions to Mars, global warming, and environmental pollution. I worked as part of the COSEE program for mapping and catalogihg species in the Gulf Of Mexico and worked on developing plans to help restore coastal barriers to hurricane prone areas. I spent 3 weeks of last year traveling through China and working a project to help curb greenhouse gases and traveled to Antarctica as part of the ANDRILL/ ARISE project measured ancient Co2 levels in core ice. I am a Discovery Channnel educator and promote the use of Unitedstreaming as a way to incorporate multimedia into the clasroom. I have presented for the Discovery Channel at the FLorida Educatonal Tecnology Conference and also at the NSTA's Charolotte, NC National conference for Facing the Future.org. Recently I was selected to serve as one of the judges for the Go Green, Do Something world wide science projects, through Siemens, Youth can Change the Wrold and the Discovery network.
Teacher Contact Information:
My planning period is from 7:30am to 9:00am, however, I tend to reserve the last 15 minutes for personal planning. If you would like to set up a conference, please call the school at 352-671-6120 and I will make arrangements to meet with you. I prefer the student be present at conferences. My E- mail address is thomas.allison@marion.k12.fl.us and my home e- mail is kalyanamitras@cfl.rr.com. My screen name is Caksitanka on AIM. If I am online I am usually available for questions pertaining to class. I do not engage in social conversations with students and I do log all conversations.
Should you need other methods to reach me, please speak to me personally.
My preferred method of communication is via E- mail and I encourage every parent to provide an e- mail address. If you do, you will be able to automatically receive grade updates, as well and tardy/absent from class notices. Although I have voice mail through the school, I rarely check it. Please do not leave important voice messages on my school phone as it may be several years before I get back to you. (not a typo, please use one of the other methods above to contact me)