Daniel Gill teaches math.
Question: Why you’d decide to become a teacher?
Answer: I got a degree in Math, and my minor was education. Then I went through student teaching, and I liked it. It is a job that allows a lot of freedom, and I liked it. So, I stuck with it.
Q: Why you’d decide to become a Class Sponsor?
A: I’ve never been a Class Sponsor before, so I wanted to try. In my opinion, 2019 has a good group of sponsors, so I wanted to work that group as sponsors together. We decided it was our opportunity to do it, and have us do it together. I’m glad we did it.
Q: If you weren’t a math teacher, what would you be teaching?
A: The easy answer would be PE, because I taught it over the summer. Health and nutrition would be fun. Honestly, science as well, I would love to be able to labs like Chemistry labs.
Q: What would you do instead of teaching?
A: When I was a kid, I wanted to be in a rock band, but now I don’t think I would really like that job. It’ll be cool to be a travel writer, but it’ll be hard to make money. I would be a doctor or engineer.
Q: What is your teaching philosophy?
A: I’ve always let students have freedom and learn by exploring. I like to encourage students to make mistakes, because they learn more from mistakes. So I make an environment to make mistakes and recover from it.
Q: What is the most satisfying moment throughout your years of teaching?
A: Graduations are always fun. It’s nice to see students graduate. My first year of teaching, I had a group of struggling seniors that was on the edge of graduating or not graduating, so it was really cool to see them graduate. I begin to know these seniors really well, so it was nice to see them graduate.
Q: What is the most frustrating moment?
A: At a previous school, with their poor management, there was barely any subs. So in my class, I had extra students from another class. This kid tried to make a big show and put me on the spot. I had to take him outside, then the principle walked by and suspended him. The first year, there was holes in the wall. People were absent a lot, so it was hectic.
Q: What were you like as a student?
A: How embarrassing. I was lazy as a student. After freshmen or sophomore year, I moved from Pre-AP to regular. I had a job and a band. I was necessarily the greatest student, but I had other stuff going on. I was nice to people, I was quiet. My teachers either liked me or didn’t know me.