I am Mark Gottfried, a science teacher at Alonzo and Tracy Mourning Senior High Biscayne Bay Campus. Previously I taught at Highland Oaks Middle School for 9 years and then at North Miami Beach Senior High School. I teach biology, honors biology, gifted biologt and AP Biology. 

While I was at Highland Oaks Middle School I taught as part of a content gifted program. using a looping curriculum (I had the same students for 7th, 8th and 9th grades.) At NMB I was part of the Biomedical and Environmental Advancement Magnet (BEAM)

ATM is part of one of the largest school systems in the nation, the Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

Why did I change schools? The first time it was because HOMS was changing grade configurations and my teaching load would change if I stayed at HOMS and the entire nature of the looping gifted curriculum also changed. SO, although I was very happy at HOMS I decided to make the change.

The second time, again, I was very happy at NMB, but, the opportunity to open a new school was too good to pass up.

In my life before I became a teacher (yes students, teachers had lives before they became teachers) I earned my masters and doctorate in biological oceanography from the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

Before that I earned a Bachelors degree from Brandeis University.
Trained as a scientist, rather than as a teacher, I find I am significantly more skeptical than many of my colleagues.
If you are too, you might want to check out the Skeptics Society

I've been "playing" with computers since High School, when that meant punching cards, so in the world of education I'm treated like something of an expert. 

As for me personally, I'm married to a clinical psychologist. We have no children, and live in a small community in Miami on a 3/4 acre lot with fruit trees (our mangos produce delicious fruit in late May and June-and a pool. There are racoons, iguanas, parrots and very occasionally foxes.

As you can tell by the obvious lack of pictures of me, I hate being in photos. I do read a lot (not only my student's papers); everything from "hard" science to philosophy, from literature to science-fiction. I love foreign movies and foreign travel. In the past few years we've been to Amsterdam, Barcelona, Israel, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Russia, in central Europe-Frankfurt, Nurnberg, Prague, Budapest, and Vienna. With a brief stop at the Slovakian spa town of Piestany.