Experienced Teacher Joins History
Unique teaching styles and techniques create a new learning experience.
By Dan Von Brzeski
Unique teaching styles and techniques create a new learning experience.
By Dan Von Brzeski
Every year, new teachers and new students join Pioneer, and this year is no exception. Among those teachers is a new history teacher, Mark Hartung.
Hartung may be a new teacher at this school, but is by no means new to teaching. With eight years of experience as a teacher, he brings his unique styles and techniques to his classes. Before teaching at Pioneer, he taught for seven years at Hoover Middle School, and spent his first year of teaching at Yerba Buena High School. Prior to teaching he received an associates degree from Mission College, a bachelors from Astra University, and a masters in education from CSU East Bay.
Hartung’s inspiration for teaching existed since he had been in high school, but he was unable to pursue that career for some time for a handful of reasons.
“When I first went to college I majored in music, and thought about becoming a music teacher, and that didn’t work out and I left college and worked for a long time and ended up going back to college,” said Hartung. “I think one of the things that inspired me to become a teacher was my wife. She has been teaching for 18 years, so I had that experience of supporting her and hearing about her experiences. Also when my own children were going through middle school and I would hear about their history classes and I would hear about them memorizing places and names and dates...there’s just so much more to history... I wanted to try and be part of the solution and maybe change that a little bit.”
Hartung feels he has been welcomed warmly by both students and staff.
“It’s been wonderful, I mean everybody’s been very welcoming and helpful, I couldn’t have asked for a nicer start to a school year” said Hartung, “The students are all trying their best. I have only seen positive things since I’ve come here.”
History department chair Mike Burrell said Hartung’s experience is a benefit to the whole department.
“I think he’s engaged with the material, he’s thorough, and he’s not a first year teacher. He’s been around, he’s done history before so he brings new influence for a lot of us. He’s bringing new sources in our events and sharing that material so it’s been cool just to have that,” Burrell said.
Serena Romero, 11, is very enthusiastic about Hartung’s teaching methods and enjoys his classes immensely.
“He’s super sick, he’s super interactive. He questions throughout the period all the time and he checks on you all the time, he’s awesome” said Romero. “He’s an A++ teacher.”
Hartung may be a new teacher at this school, but is by no means new to teaching. With eight years of experience as a teacher, he brings his unique styles and techniques to his classes. Before teaching at Pioneer, he taught for seven years at Hoover Middle School, and spent his first year of teaching at Yerba Buena High School. Prior to teaching he received an associates degree from Mission College, a bachelors from Astra University, and a masters in education from CSU East Bay.
Hartung’s inspiration for teaching existed since he had been in high school, but he was unable to pursue that career for some time for a handful of reasons.
“When I first went to college I majored in music, and thought about becoming a music teacher, and that didn’t work out and I left college and worked for a long time and ended up going back to college,” said Hartung. “I think one of the things that inspired me to become a teacher was my wife. She has been teaching for 18 years, so I had that experience of supporting her and hearing about her experiences. Also when my own children were going through middle school and I would hear about their history classes and I would hear about them memorizing places and names and dates...there’s just so much more to history... I wanted to try and be part of the solution and maybe change that a little bit.”
Hartung feels he has been welcomed warmly by both students and staff.
“It’s been wonderful, I mean everybody’s been very welcoming and helpful, I couldn’t have asked for a nicer start to a school year” said Hartung, “The students are all trying their best. I have only seen positive things since I’ve come here.”
History department chair Mike Burrell said Hartung’s experience is a benefit to the whole department.
“I think he’s engaged with the material, he’s thorough, and he’s not a first year teacher. He’s been around, he’s done history before so he brings new influence for a lot of us. He’s bringing new sources in our events and sharing that material so it’s been cool just to have that,” Burrell said.
Serena Romero, 11, is very enthusiastic about Hartung’s teaching methods and enjoys his classes immensely.
“He’s super sick, he’s super interactive. He questions throughout the period all the time and he checks on you all the time, he’s awesome” said Romero. “He’s an A++ teacher.”