Alex Ferguson

About Me

Welcome to my ePortfolio!  I'm Alex Ferguson.  I graduated from SUNY New Paltz with a Master's degree in early childhood and childhood education, certifying me to teach Birth to 6th grade.  My first year of teaching was as a 2nd grade teacher at Marbletown Elementary School in the Rondout Valley Central School District.  For my undergraduate education, I earned a dual B.A. degree in Mathematics and Music from University of Maryland Baltimore County.  After my undergraduate years, I spent time doing database-backed web development for Los Angeles Unified School District, tracking tax-payer dollars going to Minority and Women owned small businesses, and other web development projects.

Once my daughter was born, I spent 3 years as a stay-at-home dad, nurturing my daughter's growing wonder about the world.  During this time, I realized that I didn't want to spend my life in front of computers, and instead I wanted to work with children.

I was hired as the Youth Program Coordinator for the Town of Esopus Library, where I did interactive, musical story-times for the smallest patrons.  While there, I built a children's garden and two 3D printers with some volunteer help.  We would feed the fish and water the garden after nearly every program.  For the older children, I did STEAM programs where we read books and did hands on activities or science experiments in the theme of the book.  Over nearly 5 years, I developed and led numerous engaging programs including Battle of the Books, 3D modeling, 3D printing, supercooled gelatin balls, how cookie ingredients impact the final product, squishy circuits, installing and setting up a weather station, science experiments, parades, kite building, computer programming, introduction to the Raspberry Pi, LEGO WeDo 2.0, LEGO Mindstorms, etc.

After COVID-19, I made the decision to go back to school and get my Masters in Childhood Education so that I could teach in a public school.  The one-room schoolhouse with random attendance aspect of the Library Programs made it difficult to do many programs that built on knowledge from previous programs.  I had such an incredible time teaching the children, and I knew that if I could teach the same children over a period of time, I could make more of a difference in their lives.

I student taught at George Washington Elementary School, in two Montessori E1 classrooms (combined 1st -3rd graders), under Felipa Gaudet and Michael Pettit.  

I taught 2nd grade at Marbletown Elementary in the Rondout Valley Central School District.  I enjoy learning from the students as well as teaching them.

I currently run the children's programs at the Rosendale Farmer's market.

Please feel free to send me an email by pressing the button below.