While art has been his passion for many years, Coach Mark has decided to let it go as a teacher, and move on to become a math teacher instead.
One of the main reasons for making this decision was that coach Mark was working on a very special painting for 3 years, but it was completely burned down accidentally by a student.
Coach Mark intended to put his piece up for auction when it was done, but a student was messing around in his class with a lighter which led to Coach Mark’s painting going up in flames alongside a corner in his classroom.
Junior Ganna Y., who was responsible for setting Coach Mark’s art on fire, described how it all happened. She said, “I didn’t mean to do that, I just wanted to show my friends this fire breathing trick I learned.” Malak S., who witnessed what happened, added, “I definitely did not expect that to happen, it was so random. I was honestly scared and felt really bad for Coach Mark.”
Coach Mark was in disbelief after he found out what happened, 3 years of work, now gone!
He said, “I couldn’t believe my eyes, I thought the students were pulling a prank on me or something but oh boy was I wrong.”
This was the last straw for coach Mark. He was unsure about his next steps, but remembered his summer when he had gone to Mr.Rings math boot camp and really enjoyed it. So after much thought he decided to leave art and become a math teacher.
“It was something new and something I didn’t expect to enjoy. It showed me how maybe I need to switch things up. People would already assume that I taught Math so might as well actually teach it,” said Coach Mark.
Even after the summer Coach Mark would still have nights where he would go and learn more about math with Mr.Ring. He realized that math was growing on him and that it’s now time to turn this new passion into a reality.
A position in the math department opened up as Mr. Page will be retiring at the end of this school year. Coach Mark will be teaching Geometry, as he can still use his art skills through the shapes he draws in the class. As Mr. Page & Coach Mark are close friends, Mr. Page plans to stop by and monitor coach Mark’s teaching once a week to make sure he is teaching properly.
In addition to his change from art to math, Coach Mark has now decided to go by ” Math Mark.” So when you see him make sure to use his proper name. “I thought if I was going to make a change, I might as well go big. I want people to know me as a Math teacher now,” said Math Mark.
When students started hearing about the new news about coach mark they were all surprised. Some had positive viewpoints while others had negative ones.
Senior Pamela T. who had Math Mark as her art teacher last year said, “When I first heard about coach Mark’s decision I was shocked because he’s been a great art teacher for like 20 years and I honestly just did not imagine he would switch to math out of all subjects.” Senior Tylan P. who also had Mr.Math Mark as an art teacher and has him as his Volleyball coach added, “ I honestly could not believe it, I thought it was an April Fools story from how unbelievable it was….Math? But if he’s happy then we are happy.”
