Coach Bill / Dad, Entrepreneur Special Educator, American Political Scientist, Writer, Musician.

As we grow up and push towards our goals, whatever they may be, it is easy to get hyper-focused on attaining them. In a family home, bills have to be paid, children's expenses have to be accounted for, and cars need to be maintained.  All this takes energy and consistent effort. For most of us, this entails working hard week in and week out. Everything costs money, except unconditional love these days. In pushing harder to keep ourselves afloat it is not hard for important priorities to take a back seat. The father that has to travel far for work loses out on family time. Children grow day by day and begin to form there understanding of what it is to live a life and how to go about doing so. The parents, for better or for worse, are the models on how to do this. The kids take example and follow suit. Generation after generation patterns are established and entrenched. The legacy of parents comes alive in the youth to a great extent and life repeats itself. However, pattern...

When I was a young boy, my Uncle Guillo, a consummate sailor’s sailor took me under his wing.  Off we would go on sailing adventures, sometimes through storm, sometimes by night, but always to paradise. It was clear that he was the ‘Capitan’ of the ship, I was one of his mates, happy as a fly on apple pie. Out at sea, everything is restricted and unleashed at the same time. The constant motion of the bobbing sailboat, the tacking and the jiving, the occasional command by Guillo..Hour after hour, wave after wave, making slight course directions here and there, Guillo brought the boat safely to its destination expertly every time. Confident and spilling grit by the way side, ‘Tio’ mastered the depths of the sea like a seasoned poet with vision and purpose drops words on a page. My heart and his heart are intertwined. A part of him lives in me a part of me lives in him. He knows this…Young at heart and always with a quick reassuring phrase to make you smile. That is my Uncle Gu...

Early on in my career I was clear that the effective Teacher is not the one with the greatest knowledge-base, but he or she who not only teaches content, but teaches the kids how to refine their emotional intelligence. I am a great believer in the psychoeducational approach to teaching. Namely, the power of a caring, nurturing relationship. Although certain key processes need to be in place for an effective feedback loop to occur, I have experienced countless successful learning outcomes due to this pivotal part to my own pedagogy. There is something about relating, connecting, and bringing emotion that more times than not, is the very oil I use to keep the students I work with progressing. The caring, nurturing concept to Teaching was recently polished off by National Educator Nel Noddings over the last decade. No one reinvented the wheel here, but Mrs. Noddings put some important spokes front and center. They are integrated into the live vision of Life Skills Corp.