Hello, I’m Larry McKenzie and this will be my first year working with the RET Program here at UT. I’ll be honest, I’m a little nervous but I imagine we all are. A little about me, I have a beautiful 4 year old daughter Jacinta and my Beautiful wife Sylvia. We moved a little over 4 years ago from Tennessee where we taught at the University of Tennessee at Martin. Before that I was in southern Illinois where I taught at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. This is also where I received my bachelor’s degree in Physiology, then my master’s in education with a specialization in Exercise Physiology, and some Doctoral work in Health Education. You may ask why I chose to do an alternative certification and teach elementary? In my time teaching at the university level, I heard every semester how much students hated math and science. This was disappointing to me so when I saw the opportunity to influence younger students so that they didn’t ‘hate’ science I jumped at the chance. I was given an opportunity to teach 5th grade Science at the Harmony School of Innovation in southeast Austin 4 years ago. Currently I teach 4th and 5th grade science and STEM and love every minute of it, well mostly.