The room’s filled with sparking neurons. Bright flashes illuminate the room. It’s an illustrious topic to cover, not challenging enough for Mr.Russo. He’s found a way to encapsulate the young minds of students. The students’ minds swirling with wonder, interest, and curiosity as he swayed through topics such as U.S. History, Global History, and most importantly and thought inducing, AP Psychology! So let us all cordially welcome Mr.Russo to the FDR family.

Mr.Russo’s first year at FDR was full of change. Coming from a different school, he was worried about how he would adjust to this new setting. However, he has adjusted perfectly and assimilated himself amongst his colleagues- and he was a hit with the students. Mr.Russo not only went through a change of schools, but he also had a change of courses. Mr.Russo taught not only two, but three different classes his first year here. Those being Global History, and two new classes he never taught- U.S. History and AP Psychology. 

There have always been certain challenges with AP classes, and you may believe that these only involve students. These classes are much harder and involve much more rigor. But, this degree of worry does not only plague the students, but also teachers. Mr.Russo, as any other first timer teaching an AP class, worried about the overwhelming concoction of new course material and students. Luckily Mr.Russo loves a challenge. He was enthralled with learning a new course and taking on a challenge of not only teaching it for a first time, but having more of a rigid structure. Mr.Russo attributes his growth this year to AP Psychology. It has helped him become a better teacher.

Imagine standing in front of thirty teenagers whose attention span doesn’t last longer than a simple back turn, to write something on the board. Now imagine having those same teenagers engage in the classroom. It’s a daunting task, but Mr.Russo using a tactile approach to the classroom, filling his classwork with numerous projects. The projects entailed students carefully constructing a miniature brain anatomy amusement park, and another had students meticulously creating a menu for zombies, who wish to snack on humans. Mr.Russo’s creativity when it came to projects is unmatched. Mr.Russo’s use of projects was a great success during his first year here at FDR. With the large scaled win’s in the classroom, there are also the smaller ones. Such as in class discussions, which allow students to relate the lesson to their life. As any great teacher would do, Mr.Russo found a way to incorporate the lives of students to the lesson and made the students feel listened to, acknowledged, and seen.

Mr.Russo hopes that next year, he can go on a trip or two with his classes and incorporate the AP classroom website with his students. Russo also looks forward to having a more active classroom, by having kids move around the classroom and talk to one another. Especially, the students who are used to learning on a computer and not socializing. Finally, Mr.Russo has left me with a very memorable piece of advice, “Sometimes, when faced with a new challenge, the best response is simply to lean into it.”  

Well done Mr. Russo!