Introduction
Hello, my name is Mr. Bonato and I am new to 8 Blue this year. I will be teaching Science and can't wait to share the wonders in store for this year. We will be covering a lot of the physical science subject matters, space, and weather will be covered as well. These subject areas allow for varied approaches to learning in the classroom and I hope to help students access the knowledge in many ways. Throughout the year other skills will be brought in to the classroom such as, leadership, critical thinking, informed decision making, small group work, organization, writing, note taking, and many more. It is important to me that all students realize the skills they are learning are important beyond the field of study in class and can be used further along in education.
For some background on myself, I was born in Aurora, but grew up in Littleton. I went to Chatfield senior high, and from there moved to Arapahoe Community College for one semester before moving on to Metropolitan State University. Oddly enough, that was not the name of the university when I attended. My degree lies in the field of Environmental Science, and I really enjoy almost all aspects of the Earth sciences. I really found myself excelling and enjoying college more so the high school.
I believe that some of the discordance I experienced in high school was due to a lack of general skills from previous education. This is one of the many reasons I feel so strongly about helping students who come through my room to learn those important skills that will be so useful moving forward. This feeling of basic skill importance was only reinforced in the time I spent teaching at the high school level and one of the reasons I felt so strongly about moving in to the middle school to continue my teaching career.
I was blessed enough to welcome my second child last year with my wife. We recently moved back into the Aurora area after living further East on the plains for a few years. My son is now ten months old, and my daughter is thirteen moving in to the eighth grade. I am looking forward to getting to know everyone better throughout the year! Don't hesitate to stop in and say hello.
John Bonato