Math and Mr. Medeiros
Joseph Medeiros, AKA Mr. M, is Galloway’s Upper Learning math teacher for advanced and on-level geometry, on-level algebra 2, and on-level statistics. Medeiros’ lively personality and fun teaching style make his classes more interesting and intriguing for students. He is always ready to make jokes to make someone laugh. His personality and ability to connect with his students make for a great learning environment and he is always willing to do whatever it takes to make the students understand the work that they do. Mr. M is one of my favorite teachers I’ve had, so I wanted to ask him more questions about himself, specifically his early life and life as a teacher.
Medeiros' passion for teaching started when he was young; before his father died, he had a conversation with Medeiros and told him to pursue what he wanted and what he loved to do. He always dreamed of teaching and he loved doing math, so he decided to pursue it. He taught and tutored all throughout undergrad which he said was a great segway because after he graduated, he went right into teaching. Something that makes him love teaching is how he enjoys the experience of working with students. He likes talking with the students and helping them out so they understand the content to the best of their ability.
Medeiros is 26 and loves being a young teacher, but it also comes with challenges. He says that being a young teacher means you have to work harder to show that you can work well in the teaching community. Being a younger teacher makes it easier to establish relationships with the students. He says that because he is young, he and his students have more in common because he understands their culture more. Having more in common with the students also gets the students to buy in more and put in the work because he understands them. Although he is close with the students, he also has to work harder to establish boundaries. Sometimes students may not take classes seriously, but Medeiros creates a classroom where students want to be engaged. When they are in Medeiros’ class, he will make sure that they do their work and understand the topics. Also, being a very young teacher reminds him of what it was like to be in high school. He feels more connected to the students and he likes that because he doesn't want to forget what it's like to be a student.
Medeiros explains that kids should be more open to math because the skills people accumulate over time allow them to solve problems that aren't approachable with standard techniques. He knows that kids have trouble learning and understanding math, so they automatically block it out because it is hard to learn. He understands that the beginning stages are so boring and not exciting, but to get to the “cool stuff,” you have to learn them. Once people get to the interesting and cool stuff, they can do so many things with it and apply it to many subjects. He says that he is interested in economics and can apply it to his previous skills like Calculus. Medeiros loves math because of how he can apply it to other topics to better understand them.
The Galloway School has a yearly, two-week session, where students choose an excursion that interests them. This year, Medeiros chose to do an excursion about queer history because he wasn't able to learn about it when he was our age. He had to learn about it on his own because he was never taught it. He believes that there are so many people in the queer community that people should know about. There are also communities like the lesbian and queer people of color that are a huge part of the queer history story which gets left out of many things like movies and TV shows. Those stories are the ones that he wishes he would have known and heard about sooner when he was our age. He believes that queer history should be celebrated because so many people put a sad connotation over history. Although there have been tragic events, he believes that there are many exciting events that should be taught and celebrated.
Outside of teaching, Medeiros has many hobbies. Fishing is a big passion of his as he does it competitively, has played in tournaments, and has traveled the world to fish. He was the sponsor for the fishing club last year as well. Football is another big part of his personality. Medeiros is always talking about the latest football games, especially his favorite team, the Georgia Bulldogs. He loves to travel and Central and South America are his favorite places to travel to (though his favorite place is Lisbon, Portugal). Lastly, cooking is a fun hobby to pass the time. He grows food or catches it when he finishes and then cooks them. He loves a good whole fish with tons of spice.
Medeiros is a teacher with many layers. His determination to help his students succeed inspires them to want to do better for themselves. Overall, Medeiros is a teacher that is always willing to help or even chat, and this is what makes him such a loved teacher.
By Marco Schittone