Joining the Kingswood Oxford community this fall is Middle School math teacher James Fenzel.
About 20 years ago, Mr. Fenzel toured KO for the first time, with the intention of teaching here, but ended up moving to New York instead. After pursuing art for the past 15 years and moving to West Hartford, Mr. Fenzel sought out returning to teaching.
In the spring, Mr. Fenzel interviewed for an art position. When a full-time math position opened up, he knew he had to jump on the opportunity.
Because he is an artist, Mr. Fenzel is creatively drawn to math, trying to make the subject more fun and understandable to middle school students. “ I’ve really enjoyed looking at math more creatively,” Mr. Fenzel said. “I am trying to teach math not just as a bunch of algorithms, but as number sense and understanding numbers and having fun exploring mathematical concepts. I’m especially interested in the middle school level to get a lot more hands-on experimentation in math class.”
With his experience of playing lacrosse at Georgetown, Mr. Fenzel is adamant that practicing the basics is very beneficial. “ I’ve always taught and coached,” Mr. Fenzel said. “I played lacrosse in college, and I think, for me, education and being an athlete had similar things, where the more you’ve learned the basics and practiced the basics, the better your skill set is. Then, the more creative and expressive you can be, and the more you will like a subject or a sport, that’ll then drive you to do better.”
When thinking about the whole school year, Mr. Fenzel hopes to bond with each student. “ A major goal,” Mr Fenzel said, “especially being new here, is to get to know students better on an individual level and really try to help them develop as a student and as a person in a way that’s best for them. I think that feels hard now in September, where it’s a bunch of faces I don’t fully know. But I do enjoy the KO class sizes and the schedule, which does allow us a lot of time together and then some recovery time on the day between.”
The KO community is very excited to welcome Mr. Fenzel to the Middle School and wishes him luck navigating a new environment.
