Mr. Peter D. Orr
Born: October 13, 1966; in Reading, PA.
Education: The King's College, BA; Rutgers, the State University, MA.
Teaching Assignment: 8th Grade Social Studies, Southern Lehigh Middle School.
My Creative Hobbies Include:
Paintings,
Sculpture,
Click on the this banner to see more:
Making Chess Sets (and playing chess),
Writing Poetry, Short Stories, Cartooning (like Rex below)
<:8()~
Two books are currently in the works. The first is has the tentative title Peace at Daggers Drawn. It is a diplomatic history of WWII that I've been working on for 6 years. The second book idea is a work of fiction that could best be described as "archaeological-fantasy." Both of these projects seem a bit overwhelming at times and I wonder if I'll ever be finished.
Physical Activities/Hobbies:
Playing Basketball (every day if possible), Lifting Weights (every other day), Swimming (summer only), Flag Football (fall only).
Intellectual Activities/Hobbies:
This year I took up playing the guitar. It has become an obsession. I've been learning on an acoustic. I'm saving up for an electric guitar. All contributions welcome (JK!). I create my own stuff as well as learning how to play what others have written. If you love the guitar and have been looking for a cool internet site to find tabs and chords, I recommend exploring guitartabs.com . I love playing the piano too, although it doesn't seem like I have the time lately.
I do enjoy reading. What I read has become almost exclusively non-fiction these days; history, philosophy, politics,world cultures & travel, science, poetry, Forensic Pathology & Osteoarchaeology.
Click on the skulls to
go to my Forensic Pathology webpage. As you can probably figure, CSI is my
favorite TV show.
Other things I think are interesting to study: Foreign Languages, Biblical Studies, Archaeology (experience in Egypt, Israel, Greece, and Turkey), Ancient Languages (Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Cunieform, Greek and Latin). I really enjoy creating and playing historic, strategic simulation game. I suppose that I could add Web Page design to this list, although... I'm still quite a novice. I've been working on creating a cuneiform tablet learning program that will hopefully be a marketable item for World Cultures/Ancient History teachers. Check out the examples below:
Foreign Travel:
Every summer since I've been a teacher, I've led a group of students, parents, friends and neighbors on a trip abroad. Often more than one country is visited on a given trip. However, we went to Scotland in 1999,& 2000 and 2001. In 1999 we were lodged at Glasgow's Caledonia University and I drove everyone around in a 17 passenger van. In 2000 we used Stirling University Chalets as a hub for our travels and activities. In 1998 we went to St. Lucia. In 1997 we took a grand tour of Europe (Frankurt-am-Main, Rothenburg-an-der-Tauber, Munich, Venice, Verona, Luzern and Heidelberg). In 1996 we did London, Paris, Brussels, Cologne and Amsterdam. In 1995 we started in London and then went on to Paris, Geneva, Innsbruck and Munich.
Click here to read about going to IRELAND!
Check out these pictures:
Our 2001 trip to Scotland was the best ever, because of the people we had on the trip and the tour company we used. We started the tour in Drymen (Close to Loch Lomond) and then went on to Inverary, Oban, the Isle of Iona, Inverness, St. Andrew's and Edinburgh. Scotland's rugged landscapes and quaint villages and mountainside crofts inspired me to create three miniature sculptures. Click here to see a more detailed view.
My collections include: Stamps, Bottle Caps, Patches (from the different places I've visited), Historic Memorabilia, Rare Books, and Coins.
My Favorites
Football Teams: NY Jets (Pro) Florida State Seminoles(College). Hey, I don't want any complaints about these choices. I lived in Tallahassee and Bobby Bowden used to go to my church.. The JETS thing is a bit harder to explain away.
Favorite Football Players: Wayne Chrebet, Vinny Testaverde. J-E-T-S!
Favorite "Games":
Chess, the Viking Game, Axis and Allies (My Big Board, Europe and N. African Version), Panzer General I, II & 3d, Panzer Commander, Civilization, Age of Empires, Madden 2002, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Trivial Pursuit (any editon other than the Baby Boomer Edition), Jeopardy, Pictionary, Taboo, Boggle (in fact, I just finished creating a special Boggle Dictionary Guaranteed to improve your game by 1000%)*, Schneider Pinochle, Hearts, Zonk, Risk (original and "castle" versions only), Into the Forrest, Acquire.
Click Here to go to a page about my favorite music and movies:
*I don't actually have any data to support this figure. Duh, really.