A feature article by Ayesha Ashraf and Varnika Dhandapani
Shortly after our former math teacher, Mr. Bill, announced his retirement from Alsion, the administration began to search for a worthy replacement. This is where Mr. Brad leapt onto the scene. Mr. Brad heard about the teaching position through Mr. Joey who he worked with at Challenger, a private elementary and middle school. At Challenger, Mr. Brad taught sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. However, through his experience as a substitute teacher, he has taught almost every grade level at least once.
Although he had no Montessori training or experience, someone suggested Alsion as a viable teaching option for him. They told him that there was a small school in Fremont looking for a math teacher, and that he may want to look into applying for the position. He was worried it may be a little rough for the students who were so used to Mr. Bill to adapt to a new teacher; however, he feels it was not an issue. He has observed that our student body is intelligent and students are open to working with him to make their learning experience the best that it can be. Where he can, he wants to try to lean on Mr. Bill’s expertise, but believes that being oneself is the best option and it normally works out.
Mr. Brad can’t think of any down sides to teaching. He finds great joy in seeing some of his students accomplish something they thought was impossible. The Montessori teaching style is very unfamiliar to Mr. Brad. The curriculum is neither traditinal nor linear. The curriculum allows for a lot of flexibility, and while Mr. Brad does not believe he is taking advantage of it right now, he eventually hopes to incorporate projects that will encourage a deeper level of thinking in his students.
He appreciates the flexibility and the freedom he has with the curriculum and the focus on individual students that Alsion’s teaching style encourages. Mr. Brad feels that a smaller school creates a new world of ways to interact and finish things. He also says that he has good students, which makes his job easier. Getting along with our students is easy for him and has allowed classes to go smoothly so far, and creating an enjoyable learning environment becomes simpler as students come to know him better.
At Challenger, the curriculum was very rigid. Sixth graders had to do Pre-Algebra, seventh graders had to do Algebra, and eighth graders had to do Geometry. At Alsion, Mr. Brad, is able to be more responsive to each individual’s needs and not force students to follow a set pace. As time goes on, he feels he will be able to become more comfortable with and rework part of the curriculum.
When he had just began teaching, he did a lot of subbing so he had a chance teaching kindergarten to 12th grade. He feels that teaching high school allowed him to interact with his students differently and often works from his coaching experience in high school and college teams.
What we have gathered from Mr. Brad’s math classes so far is that he has a sense of humor. He remembers from when he was a student, that teachers didn’t always appreciate his humor the way he did. Now as a teacher, he knows that he cannot guarantee that his new students will always appreciate the sense of humor he is proud of, but he keeps trying to get some laughs in class. Mr. Brad suggests that humor provides a break from his constant droning on about fractions, quadratics, undefined terms, and properties of addition, helping students listen more carefully, and he thinks it helps with the learning process.
Mr. Brad claims that he’s worked with kids for too long not to like it. He enjoys the variety of personalities. He knew he didn’t want to do the same thing every single day, but Mr. Brad felt that when working with kids you have no idea what they’re going to do next.
According to Mr. Brad, good students make his work and teaching easier, and that he’s always had good students. As for Alsion, Mr. Brad appreciates the environment we strive to maintain here, one that supports the idea that while education and schooling
are important, there are other parts of life that you should focus on as well. Mr. Brad believes in many Montessori principles which likely explains why he found himself parked in our tiny parking lot. But above all, he values the idea that education can come from experience, and a multitude of practices or from the community, not simply listening to someone read words off a book.
Since 3rd grade, one of Mr. Brad’s teachers predicted that he would grow up to love and maintain a teaching profession. He understood the concepts and was more interested in helping his classmates, being patient with them and their learning. Of course, when he was much younger, he wanted to be a baseball player, as baseball dominated much of his time. Just like the rest of us, Mr. Brad grew up a little, and decided that he wanted to be a veterinarian, soon realizing that he was not excited to see the insides of animals.
Still, even as his professional goals changed, Mr. Brad’s parents mentioned nothing of teaching, afraid to push their son into being something in particular, but keeping the notion in mind all the same. As Mr. Brad progressed into high school, he developed a love of golf and mathematics, still denying his teaching ability. He wanted to do something important with his life, not teach.
Many years later, Mr. Brad set off to college at San Jose State University, and finally admitted that he was going to be a teacher, that he was always going to be a teacher, and whether he knew it or not, this is what Mr. Brad wanted to and was going to do. To this, his parents reminded him that they had seen these turn of events coming since Mr. Brad was figuring out number lines.
In order to judge Mr. Brad’s character, we questioned him about his past jobs, learning that he worked at a golf course in college, which only added to the teasing he received from his friends who had decided that he would be a math teacher coaching golf. Still in high school, Mr. Brad worked at a family-owned chocolate factory with his sister and some of their friends. To top it all off, he joyfully remembers that he ate “a ton of candy.” After graduating, Mr. Brad worked at a casino, and then completely switched tacks to the red Target uniform, as he took up a position in this retailer.
Mr. Brad, upon being interrogated on his childhood, family, and special qualities, managed to tell us that he seems kind of ordinary, but he does love baseball, as he played the sport since the age of 3. He has a sister, who has a husband and daughter, in Nevada. However, he did not neglect to mention that she was in fact older and thought she was in charge of Mr. Brad, but of course she was most definitely not in charge, but she did take care of her little brother. Regarding his unique qualities, Mr. Brad mentioned “my mom says I’m really special.”
Before arriving at Alsion, Mr. Brad pursued an education through San Jose State University, the first time he moved out of his home in Sonoma County. Although he never taught students at this college, he played and coached lacrosse, one of his many passions. He played lacrosse in college and currently coaches two lacrosse teams, and also watches a lot of sports. Some of the teams he is most passionate about being the Oakland A’s, San Jose Sharks, San Francisco 49ers, and, of course, the Golden State Warriors.
His other hobbies include music. He played saxophone from the 4th grade and continued throughout high school. In college he taught himself to play the guitar, and it is a pastime he still enjoys today. He carries through his passion into his musical elective. He taught at Challenger in Ardenwood, where he met Mr. Joey, his major connection to Alsion. Throughout Mr. Brad’s education, his favorite subject was math. Only second to lunch and P.E of course. However, he liked numbers and the way that they worked together as well as the puzzles in the numbers he studied. Mr. Brad liked that math was not subjective, and that most of the time, there
was a definitive answer.
Mr. Brad had found Alsion’s Montessori teaching style and curriculum slightly overwhelming at times because of their unlimited possibilities. He has really enjoyed his experience at Alsion so far. His goal is to do his best teaching our students and create a fun and enjoyable teaching environment. He was to learn all he can from the student body and teachers. Another goal of his is to make sure none of his students hate math. While Mr. Brad is still adjusting to our unique school, he looks forward to modifying the curriculum, saying he wants to “make things a little more fluid and a… little less linear. Which will be hard for me because my strength is linear but it’s fun to face a new challenge.”
