Dan Rickabus' Teaching Portfolio

Enthusiastic, empathetic educator working for equity and empowerment in the classroom.

• Currently completing the Graduate Teaching Certificate Program at GVSU. 

• Currently student-teaching under mentor Mark VanGoor at City High / Middle School in Grand Rapids, MI. City High is an International Baccalaureate Diploma Program school, and has been rated the #1 school in the state.

• Currently co-teaching 1 class of 11th-grade Global Politics, 3 classes of 11th-grade History of the Americas, and 2 classes of 12th-grad History of the Americas at City.

Dan will be fully certified to teach High School Social Studies in Michigan as of May 1st, 2023. 

"Tell Me About Yourself"

"My name is Dan Rickabus. I am a pre-service, secondary-level Social Studies educator living in Grand Rapids. My growing passion for education led my career path to take a turn in 2020, when I returned to Grand Valley State University to pursue a teachable major in Social Studies. I was then accepted to the college’s Graduate Teaching Certificate Program, which I am set to complete in just over eight weeks. Since August of 2022, I have been student-teaching at City High / Middle School, an International Baccalaureate Program school that has been rated #1 in the state. There, I have taught junior and senior level History and Global Politics. I believe that today’s diverse, complex and rapidly changing democratic society demands that we empathetically empower our high school students with the knowledge and skills they need to be an active, informed, thoughtful, engaged citizen as they make their way into the adult world. As an educator, I strive to achieve these ends through in-depth curriculum planning, enthusiastic delivery of lessons, and caring, culturally responsive relationship building."