Sean

Sean graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign(UIUC) with a Bachelor’s of Science in Horticultural Science. Following that, he worked in a public plant disease diagnostic lab where he received his first exposure to public education through state extension-funded outreach opportunities. During this time, he also started work as a teaching assistant for related lab courses and eventually completed a Master’s of Education from UIUC, while continuing to work as a disease diagnostician and as a teaching assistant for laboratory and scientific writing courses. Following this he began work for Seattle Public Schools primarily as a middle school science teacher. In this time Sean taught the middle school honors (high school level) Physics, Chemistry, and Biology courses, in addition to general 8th grade science, a STEM elective, and introductory and advanced coding courses.

Sean’s educational philosophy is primarily focused on teaching students scientific skills through inquiry, rather than making direct content the focus of the classroom. With this focus students develop a lifelong ability to research, communicate, and learn in a variety of modes. These can also impress a greater passion for learning as students can direct themselves in alignment with their own interests.

Outside of the classroom, Sean has an interest in hiking and backpacking, which is what first led him to Japan eight years ago. He hiked and camped from Tokyo to Osaka over the course of a month. The experiences on this trip lead him to start studying Japanese and he plans to take the JLPT N2 this winter.

SAT® and AP® are trademarks owned by the College Board, which is not affiliated with, and does not endorse Tokyo Academics.