By Alivia Kilroy & Jocelyn Cote
Staff Writers

Q: How long have you been teaching? How long were you at Stony Brook?

A; Well this is my 11^th year since my official start date which was 2001, but I almost taught at Blanchard for 2 years before that. So 12 or 13 years.

Q: So has your whole teaching career been in Westford?

A: Yeah, and I grew up here as you know.

Q;  How has your WA experience been so far?

A: It’s good. It’s busy, very busy. I have 3 different classes so I have all levels of freshman biology. So I’m trying to juggle what I do with each class. In middle school you typically teach 8^th grade science 5 times in a day, but here I’m not just juggling the classes I’m changing classrooms.

Q: What science courses are you teaching now?

A: I’m teaching Honors, CP and Bio Foundations. There is no freshman that escapes my grasp.

Q: So you have students you had in 8^th grade last year?

A: Yeah about 30% of the kids I know. Which is good because they know they can’t screw around, not behavior wise but with the quality of work they produce. Like I just had a lab report in one of my classes and the kids who had me last year turned in really great stuff. The kids who didn’t have me last year were a little skimpy in places. So I have to be like I want quality.

Q:How does this compare to teaching 8^th grade science?

A: I find that being in the classroom itself is less work. In an 8^th grade classroom you have to be on the lookout for shenanigans. The typical 8^th grader, not all, but the typical 8^th grader doesn’t know what to do with down time. Like given enough down time a group of 8^th grade boys will hurt themselves, or break something, or have some type of bodily function occur. So whereas the typical 9^th grader you can have 4 boys sitting, most of the time, for 5 minutes and that’s okay. The typical 8^th graders attention span is much less. And planning is much more. I’m constantly planning, like everyday I have to plan what I teach but I have to figure out what I have to grade, when I’m going to grade it, what materials do I need, how do I have to set up this lab and break down this lab, do I need computers, do I need to print stuff up. And all that stuff has to be set up ahead of time.

Q: Where did you go to college?

A: I went the UMASS Amherst between the years  1995 and 1999.

Q:  What did you major in?

A: My major is in forestry which is like ecology. So basically Forest ecology.

Q: Were you nervous the first day of school?

A:Yeah I was a little nervous. But it was almost like freshman were nervous. Like wasn’t nervous about teaching because I know that but more nervous on where I was going or who to sit with at lunch.

Q: Were you excited when you found out you were moving up to the high school?

A:Oh yeah very much so. That was always my goal, when I started teaching at the middle school.

Q: How are you adapting to the new curriculum?

A:Slowly. Very slowly, it’s a day by day process. I go to different classrooms and listen in on their lessons.

Q: If you weren’t a teacher, what job would you want to have?

A:I would be a subsistence farmer, like I would have enough acres of land to grow enough food to sell and live off of. I guess I’m really like a home boy, the only thing I don’t like about teaching is you have to be inside all day.