Hi. I'm Paul Brocklehurst and welcome to paulbrocklehurst.com. I built this site in order to allow people to get to know me a little and also for me to connect a little better to people that I already know. Please roam around and also contact me with comments, questions, or to talk about anything I haven't included on this site.

ABOUT ME
I grew up in Davenport, IA, although I usually identify myself as being from Chicago, where I spent most of my adult life. I have a passion for travel, adventure, new cultures, and new challenges. My educational background and half my professional experience is in the field of Mechanical Engineering. I was successful at it and loved the technical complexity of my work. Still, I felt that something was lacking and eventually began to brainstorm for a more rewarding occupation. So, I made the switch to teaching and coaching 5 years ago while I was still in Chicago. It was a good move on my part, and I'm proud of new life I've built with it. After three successful years teaching in Chicago, I made another change. This time, it was location.

I decided to take my show international, ending up currently employed as a certified upper school math, science, and SAT prep teacher at the American School of Puerto Vallarta. I'm a native English speaker and have learned to speak and write in Spanish here in Mexico. I'm proud to say that I have been a founder and administrator of an innovative approach to education we call MDI. Although this is still just our second year, we've already seen some very exciting results from our students. I encourage you all to investigate this more at our new website, www.mapdirectedinstruction.com. I'm also very happy that the school has supported me this year in organizing a student-driven, world-class peer tutoring system and also launching both a MAP Math drive and SAT peer math prep. To me, ASPV has been a great place to teach. The administration and math and science departments have been 100% supportive of everything I've asked of them in terms of making the school better. Looking back, it's quite a lot. I'm truly impressed to see how far we've come in such a short time.

In my leisure time, I enjoy all the outdoor sports that Puerto Vallarta has to offer, studying web design and economics, and continually trying to lose my American accent. I kicked off last summer by attending a curriculum laddering conference given by NWEA in Portland, OR. I want to thank the folks at NWEA for putting on this conference. I thought their conference was truly "right on target." I learned a lot about data driven education and more, and had a wonderful time as well.

When the conference ended, I made my way to Hood River, OR, and then Seattle to do some hiking and siteseeing before visiting my family in Chicago. My family recently got bigger with the addition of Draven. I suppose it was time to meet her. My visit was short because I then shipped out to enjoy a 10 day portage in Quetico Provincial Park (pictured at left), Ontario as an adult chaperone for St. Ignatius Catholic Prep School of Chicago. Thank you to St. Ig's for bringing me along and to the great team of six boys who helped make the portage a memory of a lifetime. Then... back to Chicago to move my parents to their new home. Busy busy. And finally, back to Puerto Vallarta and the beachside grind.