About VLK

“Arles Carballo is a retired Miami-Dade County High School Science teacher, Science Coach and Miami-Dade Schools District Science Curriculum Specialist with 35 years of successful experience in multiple Science disciplines and innovative Curriculum Development.

Mr. Carballo specializes in K-12 student Visual Learning styles and has regularly attended and conducted hundreds of Professional development sessions to showcase his Visual Learning curriculum, his Video-Visual to Content pairing and hands-on Cut-Out activity worksheets.

A strong believer in the power of positive thinking in the workplace, Mr. Carballo regularly develops internal wellness and “Coaching” campaigns to assist colleges with effective mental health techniques and effective state-of-the-art classroom instruction using his Visual Learning techniques.

Mr. Carballo is a firm believer in the power of paring visual-to-content learning styles to push struggling readers to proficiency and developing proficient readers into content masters.

Around South Florida educational circles, Mr. Carballo is best known for his decades-long slogan, “Teach our students in a way they can learn.”

Mr. Carballo enjoys a good Netflix binge but can also be found on his 6-mile daily bike rides near the Florida Everglades.”

My name is Rick Suydam, and I have had the pleasure of teaching and serving the children of Miami-Dade County Schools for the past 34 years. I have worked at South Dade High School for the past ten years, in which I have taught Biology and AP Environmental Science. This past year, I have really enjoyed the integration of technology in the classroom.

I received a B.S. in Biology from Willamette University in Oregon. I have been the Science Department head at both Miami Northwestern and Homestead Senior High Schools. In 2014, I was a finalist for the Education Transformation’s Office (ETO) Science teacher of the year and the MDCPS Science Teacher of the Year in 2016.

During my teaching career I have also taught Anatomy & Physiology, Health Careers I and II and part of a Medical Magnet program along with Marine Science and Integrated Science.

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Editor’s Note

Mr. Suydam has built curriculum for many years and has helped countless new and veteran teachers by selflessly sharing his work. Rick’s work is content impeccable and shares our Visual Learning technique philosophy as demonstrated in his original worksheets, activities, and Power Points.

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Joe Callaway is a versatile twenty-one-year Miami-Dade County Public Schools’ veteran teacher with years of science content-building experience. He has taught second, third, and fourth grades as well as middle school math and science.

Each year, Joe works and contributes his time invaluably to the Annual South Florida Science and Engineering Fair.

Joe challenges and engages his students through a variety of Visual Learning Techniques. His students not only master the science content but display it creatively.

Joe loves to go out on his boat under South Florida’s sunny blue skies. Fishing is a must.

Anthony Angulo, Sales

Mr. Angulo comes to us with a lifetime of experience in sales. Anthony was first director of sales for Kellstrom Industries. Kellstrom Defense provides distribution, repair services, engineered products, and logistics solutions for U.S. manufactured legacy fighters, transporters, and patrol aircraft and helicopters.

Later, Mr. Angulo, created a family-owned business, A’s Aircraft Services, Inc., where he titled as Business developer attracting business relationships for the company. With a world of prior experience as primary sales to Kellstrom Industries, Anthony set out as an aviation broker for sales and repairs building his family-owned business from the ground up to a multimillion-dollar success.

Later, he further extended his “wings” by launching Twin Engine Corp, his own aircraft engine and part business.

Today, Mr. Angulo is Senior Client Advisor for South Motors BMW in Miami.

In his later years, Mr. Angulo turns his eyes to education.

Welcome Anthony.

David J. Negrelli is a retired forty-one-year Miami-Dade County School teacher experienced in both private and public schools. Mr. Negrelli has taught middle and high school courses including the Comprehensive Sciences for sixth, seventh and 8th grades and Biology and Chemistry at the high school level.

Mr. Negrelli spent the bulk of his career at the Middle School level where he served as Department chair for Miami Lakes Middle School, Paul Bell Middle School and Winston Park K-8 center.

David received a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Miami in 1975 and a Masters degree in Educational Computing & Technology from Barry University in 1999.

In 1998, Mr. Negrelli received the distinguishable Coulter Outstanding Science Teacher Award.

Mr. Negrelli’s most memorable times as a teacher was serving on the MDCPS Science Fair committee as a state judge, as chair of the Display and Safety Committee and now most recently as a consultant.

I have taught science courses at the high school level for the past 20 years. Currently, I teach Biology as well as AP Environmental Science at Miami Southridge Senior High School in South Florida.

I love sharing my passion for science with my students. An important way I do that is by using meaningful instructional strategies and resources to allow students to effectively engage with the science practices and help them discover the stories of science.

What I value about teaching science is that it allows students to engage in sense-making about the natural world and focuses more on figuring out over just learning science concepts. Figuring out something is the key coupled with image-to-content pairing for long-term comprehension. Visual Learning Kids does just that. When I’m not teaching, you can find me enjoying life with my family.

Gustavo Jimenez is currently retired from the Miami-Dade Public Schools System with prior experience in the Chemical/Plastic Industry. While at Miami-Dade Schools, Mr. Jimenez taught Chemistry and Science for 15 years.

“Gus” graduated from Lowell Technological Institute, now named UMass Lowell, in Lowell Massachusetts. Prior to his teaching career, he worked in the Chemical/Plastic Industry for nearly 30 years. Early in his career, he spent about three years in the lab and in the field, testing acrylic polymers in the treatment of industrial wastewater.

After that, he spent the balance of his career dealing almost exclusively with polypropylene resin and its many applications but mostly in the packaging field. Gus was responsible for the sales and marketing of polypropylene packaging films, label films and staple fibers throughout Latin America, including Mexico and the Caribbean. Gus brings a plethora of experience not only in Corporate America but in education, science content-building and as our expert in Spanish translation. Gus has translated all of our Videos into Spanish to create our English Language Learners bilingual folder!

Anissa Rodriguez has been teaching at Miami Southridge Senior High School for five years.

During that time, she has taught Biology and AP Biology. Although she has not been in the classroom very long, she has over ten years of experience working in education in informal settings such as zoological parks.

Ms. Rodriguez emphasizes the importance of hands-on learning in her classroom and relating lessons to real life applications. Although Ms. Rodriguez did not originally intend to become an educator- often citing that she is a Biologist first and an educator second- she has evolved into her role as an educator and an outstanding content-builder, oftentimes described by her students as a real-life Ms. Frizzle. “Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!”