Favorite part about living on Field 2?

Y’all are y’all are really funny, really funny and we’ve got some great guys in here. Sometimes you make some unfortunate decisions, but at the end of the day, you all know how to have a good time. It’s really funny.

Least favorite part?

Yeah, I would definitely say some of the some of the “poopier” stories.

Favorite “brain-rot” term?

I love “Unc” as a term, but I don’t know if that’s technically brain rot or just lingo.

What’s it like being a Gen Z teacher?

It’s funny. I think that students are always surprised that I’m tapped in or that we’ve lived through similar things and similar phases of life. But also it can be hard, because I also grew up chronically online.

Is Brain Rot the modern Shakespeare?

No, no, I don’t think it’s the common, modern Shakespeare. I mean, I do think that what’s interesting with brain-rot is that there are so many words. I mean, I don’t know a time during my life where so many new terms became so popular so quickly, in a way that’s likely similar to Shakespeare during his time in introducing a lot of new vocabulary and coming up with new words and merging words the way that kids are doing it now. Shakespeare’s different and often slightly more sophisticated.

What’s one of your little known hobbies?

I’m not a good cook, but I’ve been trying to cook. I love to exercise. I like to sing, music.

What’s something you wish you knew before coming to Deerfield?

There’s no way to know this, but I wish I could have, like, understood how intense it would feel to be kind of like, constantly, go, go, going. There are very few breaks in the day in a way that’s different from being a student. There’s more responsibility, and I’m more anxious about what could go wrong.

What was the most transformational book that you’ve read?

Beloved by Toni Morrison. Every sentence is gold in that book. I genuinely think it is the best book.

In what moments have your students taught you?

I think they’ve taught me to enjoy some of the little moments and to have fun in the classroom and to lean into moments of fun as moments of learning. I came in very much kind of in my head, like one day I want to be a serious teacher. And like, I think being a good teacher, being the best teacher is being able to enjoy just being present in the moment with people and learning together.

What’s your favorite part about teaching English?

I love the light bulb moment, like the aha moment, or when the kids teach me things that I didn’t notice when I was reading it. I’m like, Oh, I didn’t see it that way. Or the kids will be talking around an idea. And they will be like, “Oh, my gosh. It’s this!” Like, it’s an electric shock.

What is a book that you’ve read and would like to include in one of your classes’ curricula someday?

So when I was in high school, I read A Tale For the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki, which I thought was wonderful. Klara and the Sun is another book that kind of revitalized reading for me at a time.

What inspired you to become an English teacher?

I had really, really influential English teachers when I was in high school, English and theater teachers.

I kind of wanted to pay that back in a way. I also think it’s a really important skill, and I wanted to try teaching. I really like school as a space. I really like exploring through ideas, like the way it makes you slow down your thinking. And in a time when thinking happens so rapidly, or people are trying to augment that process all the time or have you not think at all and just shoot ideas into your brain in a million seconds, I think it’s really important to be able to slow down.