For many, the process of a job interview can be nerve-wracking, tedious, and burdensome. However, such a monotonous procedure was interrupted on one fateful day when the Ojai Valley School administration interviewed former Ventura High School math teacher John Kim.
Amid the typical spiel of his good qualities, years of experience, or why he wanted this job, he included a description–from the student’s perspective–of what his classroom looks like. Not a physical description or layout of his class, but more the general mood and atmosphere of what it feels like to be in one of his math classes.
Mr. Kim used one word as a descriptor: magic.
According to Mr. Kim, “There are two ways to learn, through pain and through pleasure, and both work.”
Mr. Kim has extended teaching knowledge and experience, making him highly qualified to make such a bold statement.
He emigrated with his family when he was seven years old from Seoul, South Korea, to Orange County, California. At an older age, he attended high school but had poor grades with a low GPA. He only felt much motivation toward school at the end of high school and college, when he started putting in more effort and substantially raised his GPA. He brags to this day about the perfect score he achieved on the math section of the SAT.
Throughout both high school and college, he took up tutoring as a side hustle, actually making money during the later years. He still tutors on the side in addition to his new job at Ojai Valley School. Here, he teaches AP Calculus, precalculus, and Algebra 2, totaling five different blocks.
Through his overall pursuit of his own education as well as the education of others, he learned the blatant fact that true learning can only be accomplished through either harshly negative or positive experiences. Through some of his tutoring experiences in the past, Mr. Kim has learned that he does not enjoy using pain to get his students to learn. Instead, he appreciates the practice of making the classroom experience fun or even magical.
“I need to engage my students…so I just incorporate it into a lot of lectures so I can get as punny as possible,” Mr. Kim explains why he integrates so many puns into his vocabulary. “It kind of makes it light and makes it kind of fun.”
In addition to the punny dad jokes, Mr. Kim utilizes acronyms, magic tricks, and even funny hats to engage with his students. The above creates an easygoing, amusing environment for his students, whether in Algebra 2 or AP Calculus. Mr. Kim makes classes that would often be boring and monotonous subjects into memorable and goofy experiences.
“I like how he tells stories to help us remember terms, and his spontaneous magic tricks are silly enough to counteract the dark wrath of math,” said junior Tallulah Bell, one of his Algebra 2 students.
Such attributes made him stick out so much on his job application. According to the admissions team, his interview stuck with them, just as how the math taught to Mr. Kim’s students sticks with them a little more than it would. For this reason, Mr. Kim is a delighted new member of the Ojai Valley School committee.
“If they are having fun,” Mr. Kim assures. “I mean, what a way to learn, right?”
