Thanksgiving Post

Even though this is the morning after Thanksgiving, I wanted to write a post about what I am thankful for professionally.

• My students: Teaching can be very difficult and stressful, but having the group of students I have had the past few years really keeps me motivated and grateful to be a teacher. I have a group of seniors this year that I have taught every year since their sophomore year and some others I have only taught one or two years, but still have a great relationship with. It has been awesome to watch them grow up both academically and socially. Although I don't want to see them go, I look forward to hearing about what they accomplish once they move on from high school.

• My coworkers: I feel really lucky to be surrounded by both great math teachers and outstanding AP teachers in other subjects. Half of my teaching load is AP and the other half is other math, so I have connected to a few other AP teachers not in the math department. Tara Cotton has been killing it with AP Literature and Composition for years and is still always looking to improve. I have discussed a few writing strategies with her that I have tried to incorporate into my Calculus classes and have tried to model the level of rigor in my class after hers. Although students often complain about the amount of work they do in her class, they always come back from college thanking her and saying how well-prepared they felt because of her class. Frank "Toast" Ferzetti has built our AP Physics-Mechanics program from scratch and his results have been great the past few years. In fact, he is extremely close to getting a 2nd level of AP Physicis-Electricity and Magnetism running in our school. Almost every kid that takes AP Physics also takes Calculus so we share a lot of kids. We have been collaborating regularly for the past 3 years, to the point now that it is almost daily. He has given me a lot of ideas and his physics knowledge is 2nd to none. Toast does such a great job teaching his AP Physics kids that if I see one of my kids has his class, I instantly know they will be successful in mine. Lois Dutra is in her 3rd year of teaching AP Chemistry and we have had several discussions on "flipping" class and ways to improve our lessons. Janet Ponzetti and I worked together for the 1st time last year in our Advanced Algebra 2 classes. She was awesome to work with and I stole many ideas from her. Janet is someone who always looks to improve and analyzes each lesson extensively. Gerald Bruman was at one point the only person I collaborated with in the building. We started teaching a year apart and we shared a wall between our classes. I wouldn't be the teacher I am today if it weren't for Gerald. Although his class is now in a different hallway, we still talk regularly. I don't get to bounce ideas off him as much as I used to, but it is probably better for me as I have been forced to branch out. He is still my go-to for my really crazy ideas because he's even more out there than I am.

• My administration: Like I said, I sometimes come up with some really crazy ideas for my classes. Many teachers have administators that don't like big changes or want to micro-manage everything. I have always been supported whenever I come up with something new I want to try. Sometimes they will tell me to start small instead of going all-in with all of my classes, but I have never been shut down on an idea. Pete Romanik (department chair), Ray Jacobs (district supervisor), and Kathy Procopio (building principal) have given me the freedom and support to try new things. A lot of those things have worked great and many have failed miserably, but I would have never known without their support.

• Bethany Fowler (my fellow): A couple of years ago I was asked if I would take on a student teacher. I was hesitant at first because I am very protective of my students and have heard some horror stories about student teachers. I decided to do it and Chris Carney was awesome and we ended up hiring him to teach the following year to replace a retiree. At the end of last year, I was approached to be part of the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship program. It places people with degrees in math/science with STEM teachers in high needs districts. I was nervous because I had such a great experience with Chris, there was no way this could be as good. I took it on because I believed in the rationale behind WWF, but was nervous. I wouldn't call the experience better or worse because they were both great, but very different. First of all, WWF is for a whole year, not just a college semester. This has given me the time to work differently with Bethany. Also, Fowler has a master's degree in mathematics, something the majority of math teachers do not have. Her content knowledge, work ethic, and passion for teaching are amazing and my students and I are very lucky to have her with us for the year.

• My wife: This post has been about my professional life, but I don't think you can be truely happy professionally if you aren't happy personally. Although I tried to stay single and enjoy the Jersey shore as long as I could (I got married at 33 years old), I could not be happier right now nor do I have any regrets. If I had tried to settle down earlier, I would have married someone else. Robby is without question my best friend and the perfect wife. She is supportive of all of the work I put into my job and works just as hard at hers. She could use a little work folding laundary, but nobody's perfect!