There are two pieces of this domain that I felt I needed to consider, the relationships I have with my students and the relationships I have with my colleagues. Coming from the college level, I felt the need to prove that I am looking to teach at the high school level for the right reasons. Hopefully, this question has long since been answered. The relationships I have created with students are why I get out of bed in the morning, and I will continue to prioritize them as long as I teach. Part of the reason why those relationships are so strong is that students know I am not just invested in them as math students but invested in them as people. I make sure I show up for them, whether that is in class, in office hours or through email when they have questions, or enjoying their concerts, plays and sporting events. These students know I am in their corner and that relationship does not end when they leave my class, as my door is always open, and I will continue to give advice if they reach out even as alumni.
Of course, that only answers the question of why teach high school and not why EPS. After all, there are many great high schools with great students and while EPS students are special, there has to be something more than that to keep me here instead of going to another high school. The reason I stay at EPS, beyond the students, is the relationships I have with the faculty. I really like the faculty here and have enormous respect for all their accomplishments. Everyone here is genuine in their commitment to helping students and the collaboration amongst faculty members is strong. I do not know if I survive the past six years if I did not feel so supported by my fellow teachers.
As I have been working on this domain, another question has risen in my head. I have been reflecting on how I want to be viewed by others and the question has come up if I am being viewed in the way I want to be. I know I am by nature quiet (at least, I am short a couple of beers) and thoughtful. I am someone who values listening to others and thinking through ideas before speaking. However, when I do speak, I want those words to matter and offer actual insight or progress. Going through this process, I have been getting what I believe to be a truthful insight into how I am viewed by my peers, and it has been quite heartening to see that the view others have of me aligns with how I want to be perceived. I take that as a sign that I am seen and valued here at EPS.
Collegial Dynamics
(1) develops mutually respectful and productive relationships with colleagues
I thought about giving some sort of preamble here but I feel the best way to start is to simply share the following survey responses. These were illicited from colleagues to the prompt how would you describe me as a colleague?
Hilarious and kind. Someone with a great sense of humor, someone who participates in everything. Someone who doesn’t take himself too seriously. Love that you are so smart AND so humble about it. – Molly Lori
As a colleague, you are on the quiet side. This is something that I respect because you are quiet without being passive. You know what is good for the kids and the department but you don’t have to share all the time in group settings to have your voice heard. You are one of the few people that I trust on campus and am grateful to also call you my friend. – Anne Duffy
You are very easy-going, approachable and willing to work cooperatively with all of your colleagues. In math discipline meetings, you were always respectful of others and a good listener. You also offered valuable insights and suggestions. – Adrienne Behrmann
Energetic and helpful, big support of community and gathering – Sarah Aguiar
Thoughtful, humble, open minded. And super underrated humor – Steve Fassino
Approachable, knowledgeable, honest – Alicia Iannucci
Hard working, quiet, humble. You listen first, speak last, but when you decide to share you are firm in your thoughts, and they are… thoughtful. You don’t need to be seen as a staff member that speaks out or has the ideas… your work shines in the classroom and this shows in your dedication to the kids, but also to the way you communicate with and about them. You are also extremely supportive of your peers, especially in the math department. You are a wealth of knowledge and patiently help anyone that asks. Finally, you don’t get mired down in staff bullshit, but just do your job, trying not to let the noise get to you and detract from what gives you joy… teaching. – Brandon Smith
I think these responses give a great snapshot of me as a colleague.
To further illustrate the productivity of these relationships, I offer the following:
In regards to me as a mentor and co-teacher: Extremely supportive, hardworking and open to change. You are always willing to help or support your co-teacher, and also willing to do that small detail based things. Personally, last year, you were invaluable to me trying to get up to speed as I transitioned from a google school to this crazy house of Microsoft products and the monster that is ONE NOTE ‘O doom. Thank you for all that help. You do it quietly and often. This year, I really got to see your work ethic in a classroom. You can PUMP our material, create amazing lessons, build dynamic projects and also put together amazing and extremely comprehensive solution guides. All in all, you are one of the most supportive and willing co-teachers I have had the pleasure of working with. Thank you for helping me get through this difficult year. I wouldn’t have made it without your support. – Brandon
In regards to me as a mentor: You’ve been a great mentor to me this year; you patiently answered my questions and made me feel comfortable in every interaction. I appreciate your wealth of knowledge and your ability to tell it like it is, which helped me feel comfortable starting at a new school. I don’t have any notes for you as a mentor on areas of improvement, but happy to chat about this more if you’d like 🙂 – Alicia
In regards to me as a co-teacher: We co-taught Calculus together and you had been teaching that course already. I appreciated how welcome you were to suggestions or changes. I didn’t suggest anything drastic but that openness to allow for me to have a voice made me feel valued. Further whatever I did suggest you often were willing to accept it, which again made me feel valued. Something you also contributed was all of the logistical work of maintaining the Canvas course page for all sections. I know it’s not a huge task but it’s not a non-zero task to make sure it all is working and up to date for all classes. I’d add as a possible suggestion for the improvement question that we didn’t have much collaboration on what we did during class time. We obviously collaborated on assessment design, agreed to a calendar, had the same homeworks, referenced the same course materials (Paul’s Notes). But what we didn’t discuss much was lesson design. And I’m mentioning this only because I like thinking about designing lessons so much as I find it fun to try and sequence problems and questions and activities to help facilitate learning. And so I recognize that might not have been as important of a task to you as it was me so take this with a grain of salt. But to be a better co-teacher in the future, engaging with some lesson design would be something I’d enjoy. – Steve
In regards to me as a co-teacher: You were great to work with as you are organized, efficient, responsive, and always willing to help out in times of need. You often ( and still ) help me out when I need advice on how to approach a particular math problem. You are extremely knowledgeable in your subject and you are able to impart that knowledge clearly and unambiguously. You are also very patient and caring. – Adrienne
Finally, some additional comments:
I saw such growth in you as a teacher between the time you joined EPS and when I retired at the end of June, 2022. You became more confident, more comfortable speaking out, and I loved how you engaged yourself fully in the school community, attending sports games, social events, and being a caring, compassionate colleague, I miss you!!!!! – Adrienne
Hopefully this is helpful, if you’re looking for more specific adulations or critique let me know. I’m just completing this in one sitting and could easily come up with more content as needed. Also I want you to know, I think you’re a wonderful human being with a huge heart and our students are lucky to have someone so kind teaching them such advanced mathematics (this was not the case for me). And I want to share seeing your comfort to be yourself grow over the last 5+ years has been rewarding. If only we had video of you in year 1 to contrast it to now- I feel your evolution into a confident teacher has been (pun intended) exponential. You have a lot to offer anybody and so I’m glad to see more and more people experience Kaminsky! – Steve
Be more vocal 🙂 You can and are leadership material and anyone that tell you otherwise be damned 🙂 You are such a wonderful person and a staunch advocate for your students. It has been a pleasure my friend. Thanks for putting up with me… Take care… High FIVE! – Brandon
(2) partners consistently with colleagues on projects (i.e., integration, service learning)
This indicator is a little harder for me to answer. I am not an advisor, something that may change next year, and I operate at the extreme end of the math curriculum. This means that I am on an island in the classes I teach and do not get much of an opportunity to participate on things like service learning. That being said, I think I am someone who can be trusted to pull their own weight.
Some instances where I have partnered with colleagues:
- EBC
I have never run my own EBC trip but try to be as helpful as I can to the trip lead. I also try to be a team player and as open as I can be on where I am sent. For instance, my first year, I served as a backup, not knowing my placement until about a week before trips ran and then being sent with the 6th grade to NatureBridge, with Molly Lori, Ryan Winkelmann, Alicia Hale, and Amis Balcomb.
NatureBridge was a “project” we did together, and you were always engaged and present with those sixth graders. You are someone I can trust to pull his weight on a trip. – Molly Lori
My third year I was on the orienteering trip with Dana Albu and Ian Corey-Boulet. We partnered with an outside person who turned out to be unreliable and we were forced to entertain the students on our own unexpectedly quite a bit.
My fourth year, I was sent to Washington D.C., with Melissa Hayes, David Lao, and Amis. Melissa runs a tight ship but I tried to help out in any way that I could, including being responsible for the medication.
Last year, I was sent to Charleston with Karla Harris and Wen Yu Ho. This trip involved me driving a van, something I have never done before and quite honestly, was not entirely comfortable doing.
Finally, this year, I was sent to London with Caitlin McLane, Verity Sayles, and Jeff Bandel. Again, I tried to be helpful in any way I could.
- Partnering on math classes
Here are some anecdotes from my co-teachers
We planned Calculus classes together when we taught the same class. You were always very easy to work with, you put in a lot of effort coordinating the material and making sure that assignments and solutions were updated on Canvas. You also gave very valuable input into which topic should be covered and how material should be delivered. -Adrienne Behrmann
We co-taught Calculus together and you had been teaching that course already. I appreciated how welcome you were to suggestions or changes. I didn’t suggest anything drastic but that openness to allow for me to have a voice made me feel valued. Further whatever I did suggest you often were willing to accept it, which again made me feel valued. Something you also contributed was all of the logistical work of maintaining the Canvas course page for all sections. I know it’s not a huge task but it’s not a non-zero task to make sure it all is working and up to date for all classes. – Steve Fassino
We worked on the project to introduce kids to derivatives. We really took our time with this and your contributions to those lessons were invaluable. You have a vision for where topics can go and for excellent questions that distill an idea down to it’s core… these kinds of questions or examples that make for wonderful inquiry projects. I think you have wonderful vision and wonderful patience in the introduction of topics and in that lesson in particular, I appreciated how we took the time, made the time, to take it slow and give this monumental topic it’s time in the sun. – Brandon Smith
Finally, here are some additional anecdotes about projects I have been involved with:
Even though I am not technically in the math discipline now, we have still had multiple conversations about the math sequence and program. We have mainly chatted about applications in math and how that applies to science or what I observe as students lack of transfer of their knowledge in math and the application in chemistry. We mainly ponder and wonder when we chat. But I have seen you take that a step further by engaging with science faculty to develop and write application questions for your classroom even on assessments. This again is reenforcing the students’ mathematical thinking and also demonstrating that there is clear application to what they are learning. – Anne Duffy
This PDP! You are always willing to learn and grow. You have a growth mindset and look for ways to improve regularly. You don’t hesitate to try new things and are always open to feedback. – Sarah Aguiar
(3) engages in collegial activities hosted by the school
In my time here at EPS, I have generally tried to be present at events hosted by either the school or other faculty members. I attend Fall Harvest and Winter Celebration every year and try to attend faculty only events whenever I can, whether they be our holiday or end of the year party, or a simple happy hour on the roof deck after school. To quote Elin Kuffner, we often would close out the party. While I no longer am certain to close out the party, I still try to make an appearance whenever my schedule allows.
A number of these events were organized by the legendary Adrienne Behrmann. Not wanting to lose that spirit when she retired, Anne Duffy, Jeff Bandel, and myself formed a committee to keep her important work going, the Adrienne Behrmann Peripatetic Party Planners or AB triple P for short. For the last two years, this committee has planned a number of events for the school.
Here are a couple of emails detailing events we have planned:
Community Membership & Support
(1) acts as a strong and positive ambassador for EPS
Acting as an ambassador for EPS takes many forms.
I serve as the Upper School Math Team coach, which involves a number of competitions with other schools. These competitions range from in person to online and from regional to international. For each of these competitions, we are representing EPS to the outside world. Not only do we typically do well in the competition, I am truly proud of how respectful and sportsmanlike our students are. They form strong connections with students at other schools over their mutual love of mathematics. I often find them talking with other students after the competition reviewing the problems and comparing methods of solving. A typical year for the math team has the following events:
- Late October: Math is Cool Competition in-person at Liberty High School.
- Early November: National AMC competition, open to students beyond just math team.
- Late November: Fall Classic in-person at Thomas Jefferson High School
- Early February: National AIME competition, open to those who qualify from AMC. Typically, we average 3-4 students a year qualifying for AIME. I have not yet had anyone qualify beyond AIME to USAMO, although that might change soon.
- February-April: Math Madness online national competition. We are placed into a bracket March Madness style and compete against a new school each week.
- March/April: Purple Comet online international competition.
EBC trips are a place where all EPS teachers serve as ambassadors to the outside world, as we shepherd students on trips to various locations. In my time at EPS, I have served as a chaperone on five EBC trips:
- Naturebridge in 2019 with the entire sixth grade class
- Orienteering in 2021 with about 10 8th and 9th graders.
- Washington, D.C. in 2022 with about 25 8th and 9th graders.
- Charleston, S.C. in 2023 with about 20 9th and 10th graders.
- London this year with 22 seniors.
Photo of me chaperoning D.C. EBC with Melissa, Amis, and David. Thanks to David for putting this photo in his PDP for me to steal.
Fall orientations are like a mini version of EBC in this sense. Here is a photo of me hard at work serving as an ambassador on the 2022 10th grade orientation:
I am struck by how often our local tour guides and partners remark on how well-behaved our kids are.
I have also been lucky enough to serve as a chaperone on the senior retreat twice.
Being an ambassador for EPS also involves helping on-board new faculty members. I am proud to have been selected as a faculty mentor twice so far in my six years, serving as mentor to Brandon Smith last year and Alicia Iannucci this year.
Finally, I want to highlight some connections I still have with alumni:
An email I received from Nat Maymudes, EPS class of 2020, after the Yankees were eliminated in 2021 and my response.
An email chain with Sydney Vernon, EPS class of 2021. I mentored Sydney in an Independent study and we video chatted about undergraduate research she was doing that built upon that work.
An email chain with Zubin Oommen, Cyrus Clapp, and Akilesh Swamy, all class of 2023. I have not responded to this email chain and can’t believe I am even including it in this.
Email from Hazel Goetsch, class of 2023 and my response.
(2) attends school events and student performances (i.e., arts, athletics, social)
This is a domain I feel I do generally well in. I try to attend at least one sporting event a trimester and this year, I am trying to extend that to attending all homecoming games. Here are photographs of me at various events
Volleyball game
Joint soccer and ultimate homecoming game.
FYI, two of the three alumni from the multi-person email chain in indicator (1) are on the right. That might help explain why I seem to be away from the group.
Girls soccer playoff game
I try to attend the upper school play and the all school musical each year. The only one I remember missing was Spamalot, but I did contribute (and never got back) an official Spamalot the musical coconut shell.
The way EPS does musical concerts seems to have changed. I try to attend the big ones with the choir, orchestra, and bands all performing, which is what the concerts were when I started working at EPS. There seems to be more smaller events nowadays, with the Friday middle band performances and the immediately after school rock-a-thons. I have not attended these events in the same way that I do the bigger concerts.
(3) participates visibly in the daily life of the school
I am very active in the school when it comes to student events. I have been the sponsor of a club every trimester since the spring of my first year. I sponsored card game club (really poker club) that spring. I partnered up with Steve Fassino and Ted Scott to sponsor board game club my second and third years. That third year, I also picked up sponsoring Hack Club, which initially met after school on Tuesday during our remote year. When we came back to school, Hack Club was forced to move back into the upper school club time, so I was forced to give up board game club to continue sponsoring Hack Club the past two years. This year, Hack Club was combined with EPSchedule into a new club, so I have shifted back to sponsoring board game club.
I have created one seminar here at EPS, called The Millenium Problems: Million Dollar Math Puzzles. I have run this seminar three times and plan to run it more in the future. Since its inception, 17 students have taken the seminar.
I have been advisor to five independent studies as of this writing. They are:
- Abstract Linear Algebra, Sydney Vernon
- Explorations in Game Theory, Egan Tardif
- Cryptography and Cryptanalysis, Akash Shendure
- Dynamical and Computational Models of Neural Systems, Andrei Espelien
- Chemical Physics: Quantum Mechanics, Arya Nair
Beyond just the additional duties of a teacher, I feel like I am a fairly visible presence at EPS. I have breakfast every day on campus in addition to lunch and really try to vary who I am sitting with and talking to. As a non-advisor, I often have middle band open and use that time to occasionally grab lunch with my middle school colleagues, something I feel has led to me having some of the strongest cross-divisional relationships in the school, especially amongst faculty that joined since the growth and expansion of the school. I try to participate in school events, notably faculty or faculty-student games or spirit weeks/dress up days. Here are a couple of photos:
Here is a photo of me during a faculty-student volleyball game. I believe that is Nat Maymudes in the Edgar the Eagle suit trying to psych me out in the background.
Villians costume. I am Newman (the mailman in the top left)
Here are two videos I made for EPS Broadcast club when it existed before the pandemic:
(4) recognizes and supports diversity in all its forms
This is something I struggle with writing about. I don’t attend EICL meetings. I tried at the beginning of my second year, along with attending Academic Design and every other optional meeting that I could. I really tried to do everything, so to speak, and felt myself burning out in a month. I dropped all the optional meetings after that.
Having said that, I do feel like this is evident in my classroom. I truly feel that I create a warm and inclusive environment for all students. I have had many students comment that even though they do not like math, they like my class and having me as a teacher.
A student I want to highlight who really helped me improve on this front is Piper Hawley. I taught Piper in Pre-Calculus and she was unlike any student I had taught before. She was more comfortable with trigonometry than algebra, thought about space circularly instead of the usual rectangle grid, and remains the only person I know of to prefer synthetic division over long division for dividing by a quadratic. Piper truly valued the process of learning and was interested in what we were doing but just thought about everything differently. Our experience was initially rocky but over time I learned how she thought and started to present problems to her accordingly. As I watched her grow, I started to think about and implement different strategies and techniques to my own classes. Some of my core tenets of teaching math are now that multiple methods to solve a problem exist with the best method being an individual choice and that I should always have an answer to the question of why are we doing this. I credit Piper with helping me realize these tenets, both of which I believe contribute highly to my effectiveness as a teacher. I include the following email I got from Nina Hawley, Piper’s mom, at the end of the year I taught Piper. I wish I kept a copy of the letter I sent her for this as well but if I did, I do not know where it is:
One aspect of EPS that is unlike my own high school experience are students wanting to sign a teacher’s high school yearbook. I think the students own words to me speak better on this front than I ever could (FYI, a well known joke I have with students is that I have signed every yearbook with [insert inspirational teacher quote here] – Dr. Kaminsky)
One student I want to highlight here is Ayezah, who wrote the note on the bottom right in the image immediately above this. It is a little hard to read but she spoke about how she did feel “good” at math earlier in her high school career but felt she really began to understand and appreciate math being in my Advanced Topics class because it was so different from what she experienced before. I wanted to highlight this note not just for what she said but also to mention that I bumped into Ayezah last year during the 20th anniversary BBQ. She told me she had declared herself as a math major and thanked me for opening up this world to her.
Also, here is an email exchange I had with a senior during the covid year. I think it illustrates how I perceive student needs and adjust accordingly.