I particularly want to work with high risk populations to help reduce the achievement gap.”

Andrew’s Story

Andrew McCarty has always been fascinated by how the world works.  It was his inability to keep that fascination to himself that first made him consider teaching as a career.  As a high school peer tutor, a Teaching Assistant (TA) to his high school physics teacher, and a college student, he was also increasingly interested in how people learn.  “I think a lot of work must be put into understanding your students and finding ways to reach them and engage them in the material.”

Andrew believes that good education is a necessity in a democracy and our nation’s best thinkers should be teachers.  “I hope to work in a heterogeneous classroom using complex instruction and modeling to engage all students and present opportunities for them to utilize their diversity of skills and experiences to help the classroom learn.”

Andrew’s fascination with the world extends to the stars.  An enthusiastic stargazer, Andrew has traveled with amateur astronomy clubs to Yosemite and Death Valley to camp and star gaze.  He has also built his own telescope under the instruction of John Dobson, a well-known astronomer and telescope maker.   Andrew graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with an AB in astrophysics and is the recipient of the Robert Noyce Teacher scholarship.  He looks forward to teaching high school physics with an emphasis on inquiry and student discovery.