Mr. Nash is a new teacher this semester and I interviewed him to get to know him.
Q: What did you do before you came to Saint joe?
A: I’ve been teaching high school for the last 10 years. I started teaching in 2015 in San Antonio Texas. I taught there for three years. I taught high school theology and psychology. Then I moved to Wisconsin where I taught for the last 6 years. I taught a few AP writing and research classes and some theology courses there as well.
Q: So far, what has been your favorite part of being at Saint Joe?
A: The people have been really great. It’s always weird coming into a school halfway in the year so you don’t know anybody and I feel like starting as a teacher here can feel like starting as a student if you were transferring to a new school. But everyone’s been really great. The teachers are really friendly, the students are really friendly, and that made it really easy.
Q: What do you teach here?
A: I work with the learning strategies team and I teach a course called basic skills with a few other teachers. What we do is help students work on executive functioning skills and also just offer more tailored support to students who are struggling in specific courses. I also get to work with a few other teachers in specific classes so I work with Mr. Doran in his English class and Mr. Mansfield in his theology class.
Q: What do you like about teaching?
A: The students! I like working with students. I’ve also been a coach for the last 10 years for volleyball. I really just like working with students and helping them to see things differently or learn something challenging. Similar to coaching, I like helping students set goals and work towards something and be that support for them. For me, highschool wasn’t my favorite thing. I didn’t love school as a kid but I remember having a few specific teachers who made it really bearable and even fun sometimes. So, I think when I set out to start teaching, it was really to be able to do that for other students.
Q: Would you ever hope to coach volleyball at Saint Joe?
A: I would love to! I’ve only ever coached girls volleyball but I’ve heard that there’s a boys team so that would be really cool. I would love to help out with that.
Q: If you weren’t a teacher what would you do?
A: So I majored in psychology in college. I watched a lot of criminal minds when I was in high school and I wanted to be a forensic psychologist. My plan originally was to join the FBI and be a criminal profiler. I still sometimes dream about doing that.
Q: Do you have any hobbies outside of school?
A: I’m married and have a daughter who’s a year and a half old. We like to spend time outside hiking and walking. I like to play ultimate frisbee and I belong to a local crossfit gym that I go to everyday.
Q: What’s a fun fact about yourself?
A: When I was in college, I won a national championship in ultimate frisbee.
Q: What’s a book or movie you would recommend to a student?
A: If you’re into psychological thrillers I just finished a book called Behind Closed Doors. That was pretty good. Right now I’m really hooked on, you didn’t say shows but you’re gonna get a show, I’m really hooked on Severance. One of my favorite movies is called Point Break with Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze. If you like Fast and the Furious, this was the movie that inspired that.
