I am so excited to announce that I’ve accepted a teaching position for the fall with the Academy of Arts and Academics in Springfield, OR. I’ve had the opportunity to interview with some great schools and for some fantastic positions over the last few weeks, but the opportunities and fit offered at A3 are so incredible for me.
Some details to share:
I won’t just be teaching math, which was pretty important for me. Anyone who knows me probably knows that there have been three times I’ve quite jobs where my only content area was math. At A3 I’ll have the opportunity to push myself by learning and teaching science alongside math, and it looks like I’ll have the opportunity to teach a theatre class, too.
A3 organizes itself around five “Habits of the Graduate,” and instead of using a traditional grading system–which I HATE–has a project based curriculum that uses a rubric to evaluate students built around this idea of EDCRO.
Oh yeah, the daily schedule is pretty brilliant, too.
Oh yeah, the daily schedule is pretty brilliant, too.
Did I mention that A3 uses a project based curriculum? Instead of the “classic” model of Algebra 1–Geometry–Algebra 2, A3 has organized the school year into six sessions to work on different projects that will provide opportunities for students to learn the concepts and skills they would learn in those traditional classes, but in a way that actually makes sense. I’ve been looking at jobs and schools that use some version of this approach for a few years, and am LeBron-winning-a-title-in-Cleveland excited to have found a place to do this.
I love that I’ll still have opportunities to do theatre with great people–whether at Cottage Theatre, other Eugene area venues I have yet to explore, or even making the drive down to Roseburg for the right show–and that there will be more creativity built into my everyday teaching. The location is incredible, as it puts me closer to family and friends, but doesn’t take me too far from the Umpqua valley and the people there.
