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Written By: Tia Smith
Contributors: Leah Beams, Gautam Patel, and Kai Ruhl
Mr. Iafrate poses with a test tube
For this month’s teacher feature, the highlight is on a relatively new member of the Science team, Mr. Iafrate!
Mr. Iafrate’s kindness and support within HDSB has not gone unnoticed. In September 2022, TAB’s very own Mr. Iafrate was both nominated, and a recipient of the Inspire Award. The Inspire Award is won by teachers who go above and beyond the expectation in supporting students and making the school community a better place.
Mr. Iafrate has been working as a teacher for 12 years, and has always loved helping others learn. Beginning in high school, helping friends through difficult lessons is when Mr. Iafrate discovered his own teaching abilities.
He teaches Biology, Chemistry, and General Science at TAB currently, however during an interview with members of the TABloid, it was asked if Mr. Iafrate would want to teach any other subjects other than science…
“I always look back on my life and think that maybe I could go back and do some business and teach that, or, develop some art skills and then maybe teach art in some way. I really admire art skills, and I love watching what art teachers do. It’s something I want to do a bit more of, even though all I can draw is stick figures.”
Outside of school, Mr. Iafrate enjoys playing retro video games, watching anime/reading manga, running, and playing table tennis - he even runs Blakelocks Ping Pong Club, who have practices on Wednesdays. In terms of video games, Mr. Iafrate’s favorite is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time.
During the interview, a TABloid member asked about what a day in the life of Mr. Iafrate would look like:
“My alarm wakes me up, the alarm in my 3 year old child, Charlie. The first few hours of the day is basically me getting ready for work and making sure Charlie is ready to go to daycare. I come into work pretty early, I’m here generally between 6:45 - 7 in the morning. Then I do my teacher thing, help students out whenever I can. After school I spend a lot of time prepping labs and lessons for the students. Then Ping Pong Club is something I supervise on Wednesdays, and then I go home and try to help take care of Charlie some more. He demands a lot of attention as a 3 year old.”
Overall, Mr. Iafrate is loving his time at Blakelock. After having been at roughly 15 different schools across many different boards throughout his career, the Blakelock community is one that Mr. Iafrate is happy to be a part of because of the care staff have for students, and how wonderful the people at TAB are.
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