Evaluate. Itle-Clark tells his third period math class to solve a problem. He explained that Bruce Lee was an inspiration to him, and Itle-Clark said that this inspiration led him to include a life-size cardboard version of Lee in his classroom.
Jason Itle-Clark
Q: What’s the best advice you’ve been given about teaching?
A: I don’t know if I’ve been given specific advice necessarily, but I think the one thing I’ve just picked up on in conversation or just by observing others is the importance of time management. Especially in the first year because the first year is just a lot to get yourself set up and established in a classroom for the first time.
Q: What made you choose to teach at AAHS?
A: I more recently got my certification in math to be a math teacher. I didn’t originally go to school to be a teacher. So there were a couple of opportunities for math teachers within a reasonable drive. My wife actually graduated from Altoona. I did not. So I’m sort of familiar with the school and with Altoona. My in-laws still live in Altoona. So I heard good, good things. I have some teaching colleagues from other school districts I know that are very familiar with Altoona, so I’ve heard a lot of good things. It was a positive interview process here, and it just seemed like it would be a good, good fit. It has been so far.
Q: When was the moment you realized you wanted to be a teacher?
A: I’m not sure if there was one specific moment. I’ve been married to a teacher for 20 plus years. So I’ve been around teaching quite a bit; I like chaperone lots of dances and lots of things like that throughout my life. Probably I’d say about three years ago, my nephews moved in with us, and one of them is with us basically until he graduates and goes on to college. Right after they moved in, COVID-19 happened. So with my background, which is in engineering, I quickly became a math tutor. And my wife is an English teacher. So she became a largely English tutor. So I think during that COVID-19 time period of just being kind of forced to kind of help them out made me give it more and more consideration.
Q: What is your favorite part of teaching so far? Why?
A: So probably, it’s whenever you can have a more personal, personable interaction with a class or with students. So whenever you do get a relationship to a point.
Q: Who inspired you to become a teacher?
A: So we joke at our house that my grandfather years ago told me I should be a math teacher at a time in my life when there’s no way I was going to be a math teacher. That just wasn’t even a possibility in my mind, so we kind of joke that my grandfather was right this whole time. But at the same time, I’ve been living with and been married to a teacher for almost 23/22 years now. Also, if you haven’t noticed, I have a Bruce Lee theme in my room. So Bruce Lee was a teacher in his own way in philosophy, [he] studied philosophy, and was largely a teacher beyond what he did in movies and everything else. So there’s lots of influences, and I can’t really point to one. I didn’t really have an inspirational teacher that I could point to back in high school.
Q: What college did you go to?
A: I have my bachelor’s at Penn State and my master’s at A.T. Still University.
Q: What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
A: If I have time, I enjoy playing basketball. I have four little dogs at home: Chihuahua [and] Chihuahua mixes. So spending time with them. I enjoy reading. I don’t get to read as much as I would like to. And sometimes just vegging out and watching [a] movie or TV show.
Q: Why did you choose the subject that you are teaching?
A: Math just always came easily to me whenever I was in high school and college and my bachelor’s is in engineering, so I’ve had a lot of math throughout my educational career.
Q: As a student, I know I tend to get nervous for the first weeks of school. As a teacher in a new school, do you feel that sense of nervousness you once felt as a student?
A: There was, whether you call it nervousness or just apprehension, or just the unknown. But there’s definitely some of that.
Q: Is there something you would want to do during your teaching career? For instance, coach a sport or a club here at the high school?
A: I would like to someday be involved in the basketball program so as a coach of some sort. Some of my work background is in wildlife conservation, animal welfare, things like that. So if there was an opportunity to do something with that kind of a positive environmental type of focus that could be of interest at some point.