Introducing Jay Watson, Lower School Homeroom Teacher

WELCOME JAY!
INTERVIEW:

What is your new position at Roeper?I am a Homeroom teacher for Stage III at the Lower School. Alongside my teaching partner, Jessie Qi, we will be responsible for reading, writing and math instruction, including social emotional and project based learning experiences. You will primarily find me in the Steward building, but I enjoy movement during my day, so you’ll likely see my class exploring campus during our learning experiences whenever we can!

 

Becoming a father, and having spent time as a stay at home parent to care for my son, Arlo, has been an incredible highlight for me in recent years. It’s helped me tap into an energy I never thought I had. Another highlight that sticks out to me is from my childhood when I became a published poet. As a middle schooler, my English teacher, Ms. Elmore, encouraged students to submit a poem for a young poets anthology book. I wrote a poem called, “When I Think of Autumn”, and it was accepted into the collection! I’ll never forget how excited and proud I felt. The support I received from educators like Ms. Elmore really inspired me to pursue a career in education myself.

 

I grew up in Berkley, Michigan and attended college at Central Michigan University (Fire Up Chips!). My wife and I have one son, Arlo, who attends Roeper as a Stage II student in the Domes. At home we have two amazing kitties (Kevin and Addison) and a very goofy dog (Leonard). All assist in keeping the home active, loving, and quite hairy.

 

When I’m not working I really enjoy spending time with my family at home or on adventures (parks, farmers markets, Tigers games, road trips). I’m a huge movie fan, so I’m always trying to make it to the theatre to see something new, but I do get especially excited when an old film is re-released so you can go see it on the big screen. Cooking is a passion of mine as well, I love trying new recipes and perfecting the classics.

 

A skill I enjoy teaching is vocabulary. As readers, it’s beneficial to be able to understand the tools we have available when taking on new words or larger pieces of information. For students, I try to keep in mind of the things that we know, and I model how that can help us understand what we’ve never encountered before.

 

Roeper’s community of amazing educators appealed to me when we were making our decisions about schooling for Arlo. It’s mission to deliver diverse, explorative instruction aligns to my beliefs of what builds strong, confident learners.