Mark Connell

I came to teaching after seeing that many students were not getting the help they needed to be successful in school.  I felt that I could help to mentor and guide students while giving them the help they needed to be successful both academically and in life after graduation.  I currently hold teacher certifications in several areas including Science, Math, and Special Education.

I began teaching at the elementary level, primarily teaching math to 4th and 5th grades.  After obtaining my teaching license, I moved directly to a residential alternative high school.  At that school, I taught students at all levels of math and science.  I also served as a mentor at the residence during this time.  When the school closed, I moved on to teaching math and computer science at the college level. It was while teaching at the college that I became aware of Lifeskills High School, which is now Eastlake High School.  I soon took a position with Lifeskills as a math teacher.  Although I left Lifeskills for a short time to teach math and engineering, I realized that I had found a home with both the staff and students at LifeSkills and returned to a math position here.  Since returning, I have helped our students with math and science, helped with maintaining our technology, and worked to help our students discover and prepare for a career they are passionate about.

Teaching is my second career.  My first career was as a software engineer, project manager, and engineering manager.  During this career, I worked on high performance graphics systems, helped develop tools for other engineers to help them develop software, and worked to develop some of the earliest web sites and web applications.