What is your name and department? My name is Clint Moon and I’m in the science department

Did you teach at any other school or is North your first? I did teach at Hoffman estates, and that was more of a student-teaching experience, but it was a really good experience. I had a good time there, I coached some soccer, and the overall environment was really nice. 

How would you describe most of your classes? Did students find your subject difficult? Being in physics, there are components where it’s math related, and I think some students sometimes struggle with that. I believe it’s because they might have this mindset where they’re like “I’ve never been good at math” or “I can never get this right”. I think it’s tough to shift that perspective that they had since they were younger, but the way I try to shift that is by doing these fun labs where you’re making a parachute and trying to save an egg or you’re trying to time this train before a ball drops directly into a cup. I think those moments help make that math aspect a bit more fun and engaging. 

What were some fun things you do in your classes? One of the highlights has been this egg drop, and most people know it. It’s been a really fun thing to do. We went to the back of the bleachers at the soccer field and we dropped them. It was super cool because a lot of students were surprised at either how bad their parachutes were or how good they were. Right now we are in a unit of circuits so we are trying to get these light bulbs to light up, which is also super fun. A lot of that stuff is somewhat applicable because you are bound to fix or change a light bulb at least once in your life. 

Do you have a favorite song? What is it? I really like this band called Fleet Foxes, they’re an indie folk band, and a song I really like by them is called Montezuma. It starts off with guitar and it’s one of the first songs I learned on guitar, so it means a lot to me. I just remember learning guitar and that song being a song I really wanted to learn, and so when I finally did learn it, it felt like I accomplished something. 

Do you have any pets? No not right now, but I had a dog and hamster growing up.

What is a quote you’re inspired by? I think it’s the Maya Angelou quote where basically people remember how you made them feel and that’s the thing that really sticks with me. 

How do you feel about teaching at Niles North? It’s awful, just awful! No but actually it’s really cool. I mean, I went here as a student and so coming back is just super nostalgic. It’s funny because I’m seeing some of my teachers and saying “Hey Mr. ___”, and now they’re like “just call by this or that”. So calling some of my old teachers by their first name is pretty fun. Especially from a student perspective, it’s different when this is your job and you’re a teacher. Although, the culture I feel like is still there. There’s a lot of people that care and there’s like a warmth to it. It’s nice continuing these relationships I had with either coaches or some of my former teachers that I now call my colleagues. 

Is there anything else you’re looking forward to at North? There’s one thing that’s coming up, it’s March 14th. It’s 3/14 so it’s Pi Day! I’m looking forward to that not only because I think it’s fun drawing circles but I actually won the school’s circle drawing contest. It was one of the proudest moments of my life. It was super random. I was in my teacher’s class and I came in, and he’s like “We’re drawing circles today!”. So I went up to the board, drew a pretty good circle, and then was chosen as the seniors circle drawer. During the pep rally we had, I ended up drawing a circle and I beat the freshmen, sophomore, and junior representatives. So, I’m looking forward to not only drawing circles but also seeing who will be the champion.