What is your name, and what is your position at Niles North? I am Mr. John Kretsos, and my position here is a high school chemistry teacher.
What got you into teaching chemistry? I was always interested in science. When I took honors chemistry here at Niles North as a sophomore, my teacher was so inspirational and interesting. He made the class come to life. One day, he asked, for some reason, to the class, “Has anyone thought about teaching chemistry?” and I raised my hand without even thinking about it and never looked back.
What ways do you try to make learning chemistry fun? I try to find, depending on how well I know the students, what’s interesting to them and what will connect to what we have to learn. I look at teaching in a different way. For me, chemistry, and learning in general, is more about just connecting things, connecting people with the information in a way I hope they aren’t just doing assignments just for the grade. I’m trying to teach them to see things around and see the world in a different way.
What is your favorite thing about being a teacher? The Student-teacher interactions. When I see a student’s eyes light up and say something. I have students who come up to me and say, “Thank you for helping me understand that” at those moments.
Aside from being a chemistry teacher, what are some hobbies of yours? Though it’s not a hobby, I’m a husband and a father to three sons, which is a very big part of my life. I’m also big into music. I play music, I’m a bass guitar player, I used to play in a band, I also play saxophone, play in bands, and do my own things.
Do you have any favorite music artists? Too many to list here, but if I had to choose a few, it would usually be the ones that somehow connect deeper, like spiritually in a way with the music. So like Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, I like rock, blues, and jazz. I like everything. When people ask me ‘What type of music do you listen to?” I always respond with “It depends on my mood.”
If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why? If I could snap my fingers and make kinda what you could call social media hypnosis disappear in people, so they could see the world for what it is. I know it’s not like super strength or I can jump really high, but that’s what it would be.
