Wildcat Spotlight: Jeremy Grim

Jeremy Grim recently joined our Deep Run staff in the math department. Grim’s path to the high school classroom has been a little different from others. Grim is from Virginia, where he has lived for 18 years, but he has also lived in South Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Washington State, Michigan. He attended Northern Virginia Community College, before transferring to George Mason University. He ended up at The University of Pittsburgh on a scholarship for graduate school. Grim became a teaching assistant for the physics department, teaching undergraduate astronomy and physics, as well as teaching at a trade school for diesel mechanics. His experiences influenced Grim’s desire to continue teaching.

   “It’s really just the students, just the younger people that I want to teach because I love watching students learn something,” Grim said. “I just have a sheer joy of watching people learn new concepts.”

   Grim hopes that he can positively influence the students in his class and help them to learn in the most effective ways.

   “I hope I am influencing them by getting them to see things outside of high school,” Grim said.

   Having only taught at the college level previously, Grim has been adjusting to the high school curriculum and population.

   “I’ve never taught high school before, so this is dramatically different; the population is much younger than what I’ve been used to,” Grim said.

   Despite the differences, Grim is excited to be teaching at Deep Run.

   “I love the huge benefit of being able to have freedom with how I teach the curriculum and the resources I use,” Grim said.

   Grim says his teaching philosophy is based upon open communication and being attentive on how students learn best. According to Grim, learning should be students’ focus, not grades.

   “I hate grades, I do, they’re abysmal,” Grim said. “Everyone is always focused on their grades and grades are okay, but at the end of the day, grades are not going to dramatically impact your life five years from now. What is going to impact you is how you tackle new material. [We] need to have conversations and good communication so that I can learn how to help you learn.”

   Grim enjoys challenging students’ perspectives and has had a positive experience here so far.

   “I’d have to say my favorite experience so far was a student telling me they were going to cheat the entire year in my class. That was my favorite one,” Grim said. “And I told them you could do that, but you’re stuck with me every day anyway, so why not try to let me teach you something, even just a little bit? And now that same student, two months later, is actually engaged and involved.”