Dennis Skehan, EDU '76, first learned about Temple University during his sophomore year at Holy Cross College. The draft took Skehan out of school, but after military service, Skehan remembered that the Temple Intern Teaching Program offered full-time employment and the opportunity to earn a master's degree in education. He enjoyed a vibrant and varied career, holding teaching positions in New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. His first teaching experience was as an elementary school substitute teacher in Springfield, Massachusetts. He taught math at Lenape High School and Norwood High School, and computer science at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He also tutored middle school students at home. Even outside of the traditional K-12 classroom, Skehan served as an educator. While employed at CORE Business Technologies, where he worked for 30 years, he performed computer installation and training on a remittance processing application until his retirement. 

But his teaching didn't end there. The CEO of CORE, a founder of Project GOAL (Greater Opportunity for Athletes to Learn), asked Skehan to help in the after-school program located in Central Falls, Rhode Island. Today, Skehan is a redirect classroom teacher and database administrator for Project GOAL and enjoys spending his summers at Cape Cod staying busy as the family tutor for algebra, geometry, and calculus. 

Skehan says he's applied the lessons he learned at Temple throughout his teaching experiences. He adds that he fondly remembers one of his professors at Temple, Stephen Krulik, writing a To Do on the blackboard to begin each class. Krulik specialized in problem solving, and the To Do was designed to warm up the class and utilize those skills. This activity was so impactful that Skehan incorporates this practice into his classroom management today, starting each classroom session with a To Do.  

He thinks Krulik, who passed away in October 2023, would enjoy this To Do for the 2024 Project GOAL classroom. Can you figure out the particular challenge? 

For more information on the impact of Project Goal, visit their YouTube page.