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Tyler Christensen and his family

Tyler Christensen is a PhD student in the Learning Sciences, in the Counseling & Educational Psychology department, in the School of Education, at Indiana University. Tyler is leading a groups of doctoral students in collecting information about the new Learning Sciences program and has displayed that information in an Introduction to Learning Sciences website. He also works as a research assistant on the Quest Atlantis project.

Biography

Childhood

Tyler Christensen was born in Brigham City, UT on October 6, 1978. He attended Box Elder High School in Brigham City for three years and then moved with his family to Spanish Fork and graduated from Spanish Fork High School in 1997.

Education

After serving a two year church mission (see below) Tyler enrolled at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah where he earned his Bachelors degree in Sociology in 2003. Following graduation he and Natalie moved to Connecticut where Tyler earned his Master's in Educational Technology at the University of Hartford in 2006. They then moved to Bloomington, Indiana where he is currently working on his PhD in Learning Sciences at Indiana University.

Career

Tyler has been involved in teaching, in one way or another, for a while now. From 2002-04 he was a faculty developer in the religion department at Brigham Young University. During the summer in 2001, 2002 Tyler was a youth counselor for the summer camp Especially For Youth. In 2004 he taught Seminary at American Fork Jr. High. In 2005 he started teaching at NW Village School in Plainville, CT. In 2006 Tyler started his research on Teacher Professional Development, focusing on new graduate teaching assistants.

Personal life

Tyler married Natalie Barlow in 2003. They had a son, Eli Joseph, born in 2005. Tyler and his family have moved from Utah to Connecticut and now reside in Bloomington, Indiana. Daughter Sharon Elizabeth was born here in 2006. Tyler enjoys running, web design, reading, and does a little song writing.

Religious Life

Tyler was raised in the LDS faith (see Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) and following high school served a Mormon mission to Miami, FL (spanish speaking). Through two years of service his faith was strengthened and religiosity increased. Returning to Utah he spent two summers as a youth counselor for a church camp (EFY), was a research assistant in the religion department at BYU, and taught release time seminary for a year at American Fork Junior High. Throughout his life Tyler has served in various church callings including assistant scout master, gospel doctrine teacher, and ward choir director.

Current Projects

• P650: Supporting Assistant Instructors. Tyler is working with Dr. Gresalfi and Dr. Lesh on improving the P251, P254, and P312 courses through P650, the professional development course that Assistant Instructors take prior to teaching that prepares them to be University teachers. They are compiling resources for the course and putting them into a website, as well as thinking through innovative ways for improving the curriculum, both for the AIs as well as their students.
• Worked on the Quest Atlantis team in the area of Professional Development.
• Designer of Introduction to the Learning Sciences website, gathering resources about the program.
• Busy as husband and father of two

External Links

• Official Website - Resume, bio, etc.
• Official Christensen Family website
• Rich on Any Income: Financial Literacy website created by Tyler
• Introduction to the Learning Sciences