Q: Are the more athletic students in your class more proficient with the material?

 A: I think that one of the great things about being a student and an athlete is that you sort of have that level of discipline and I think that that does translate [well] in some cases. There are some people who’d rather be doing something else which is completely fair. But I really appreciate the students who have that level of you know “I’m here to do a job. I’ve got a purpose, something I need to do” and I think that that does in many cases translate really well in the classroom.

Q: Do you think that the classrooms have everything they need for the lessons?

A: Yeah absolutely. I was really struck when I came here by just the sheer amount of “stuff” that’s lying around the classrooms and I think that’s great from a science teacher’s perspective. Because we always want to make sure that we have your lab supplies, things for demonstrations, interesting things just sitting around that you can take a look at. One of the first things I did with my bio classes this year was I had them stand up and look around the classroom and tell me what they thought we’d be doing with some of this stuff. So they looked at the posters, they looked at the lab supplies, they found there’s a mannequin with clothes on lying on the cabinets for one of the forensics classes, which we won’t be using, but it’s the sort of thing that sort of attracts people’s attention and anything that makes people interested in the class is a good thing.

Q: If you could add one thing to the classroom to make it better what would you add?

A: I haven’t come across anything so far. I’d love like a set of bones or something in this classroom that I could stick around in different places. I know that there are other teachers that have like a moose skull and moose antlers. I imagine it’s a teacher thing- you see something interesting and you collect it you know? So carcasses things like that, not something that’s going to like smell and stink but like the bones so you’ve got an example to go to when you talk about “oh here’s the skeletal system” so something like that I think is really cool.

Q: How long have you been teaching?

A: This is my first year teaching as a full time high school teacher. I was a student teacher in the fall. I’ve got other teaching experience in other contexts, so I’ve taught the BC marching band for the last three years. This is my fourth year doing that. I was a teaching assistant in college level classes while I was at Boston College as a student. I tutored for the past year in organic chemistry, cell biology at the college level, so I’ve got a fair amount of teaching experience, but this is my first time teaching as a full time high school teacher.

Q: Where did you go for college and what did you study?

A: I got two degrees from Boston College, I have a bachelors in science and biology. I did my undergrad— just straight biology, with a focus on molecular and cellular bio, so that’s my background, and then after doing a few years of research I went back and I got a masters in science teaching.

Q: What is your favorite thing about teaching?  

A: I like getting asked questions. If somebody asks me a good question I get a chill, and I find that really satisfying. So yeah, that’s probably my favorite thing. Having someone ask a good question that goes beyond just the stuff that goes on in class, I really like that.