Michael Marmolejo was born during the fall of the Nixon administration in the Valley of the Sun. As a proud product of the Arizona public education system, and a proud graduate of Carl Hayden Community High School, he found that he enjoyed the public school experience so much that he chose to pursue a degree in Secondary Education with a focus in English at Arizona State University. Said degree in hand, he stumbled his way into a position teaching Computer Graphic Design and Networking and Operating Systems within the Carl Hayden Center for Computer Studies – the very same magnet program that he graduated from and that arguably launched his own decade-long career in the computer industry. In doing so, he quickly discovered that it is much more fun to be sitting at the teacher’s desk than the student’s, so he has dedicated his career to using technology to make education so engaging and entertaining that students become intrinsically inspired to seek out and share knowledge.

Now in his ninth year as a teacher, he would choose no other career above the teaching profession, as his worst day as a teacher has proven to be far more enjoyable as his best day as a computer tech.

Having achieved his dream of becoming a successful teacher, in the Fall of 2012 and with the help of Grand Canyon University’s evening programs, Marmolejo set a new goal of achieving his Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction: Technology degree. With the successful of achievement of this goal in the Spring of 2014, he has set his sights on his most ambitious goal to date: to achieve his doctorate in Education in Organizational Leadership with an Emphasis in K-12 Leadership. Despite the lengthy title, he hopes to use the knowledge acquired in this doctoral program to research ways to better utilize technology resources to individualize and maximize the learning experience for his own students and for all students, providing the perfect fit for their individual abilities and learning style.

Marmolejo’s hobbies include playing video games, building small electronics, and writing about himself in the third person. He enjoys reading instruction manuals and watching video tutorials. He has never lived anywhere but his beloved Grand Canyon State, and cannot (or chooses not to) imagine life anywhere else. He likes to visit San Diego, but couldn’t afford to live there on a teacher’s salary. He met Adam West once, and will gleefully tell the story to anyone who asks.

Ironically, despite his appreciation for and advocacy of all things digital, he prides himself on his inactive Facebook page and the fact that he has never owned a Twitter, Snapchat or Instagram account. He maintains his classroom website at http://mistermarmolejo.com with the artisanal Web craftsmanship only made possible by someone who still hand writes his HTML code in Microsoft Notepad.

He can be reached at mister.marmolejo(at)gmail.com, but don’t be surprised if he takes a day or two to respond. He’s just slow media like that.