Hello My Name Is...

Jeremy Sherwin

[email protected]

Hi students & families!

I am looking forward to working with all of you throughout the school year. Please feel free to email me at [email protected] to ask a question or schedule an appointment with me.
 

Contact Info:

jeremy.sherwin@smusd.org

About Mr. Sherwin

I grew up in Encinitas, CA and have enjoyed the surfing, fishing, hiking, and mountain biking that North County has to offer. I have two wonderful wiggly boys, Grayson (age 9) and Luka (age 6). We like to play Legos, do art, ride bikes and skateboard, create inventions in our maker space, fish, surf, and chill and watch shows like Planet Earth 2, Avengers, and Chasing Monsters.

The 2022-2023 school year will be my eleventh year teaching science. The majority of my career has been blessed with teaching middle school science. I hold a B.A. with honors from the University California Santa Cruz and an Masters of Educational Best Practices from National University. I come from a long line of teachers: my paternal grandma taught math and my grandfather taught university level physics.  My mom started her teaching adventure in fourth grade and towards the end of her career transitioned into a case manager for students with special needs at San Elijo Elementary. 

A bit more about me and my journey to becoming a teacher: After graduating from UCSC, I began a career as a professional athlete. I surfed professionally through my twenties and have been featured in a variety of national and international magazines, as well as achieving competitive success. Some of my competition highlights included becoming a high school national champion, making the podium in a collection of events hosting surfers from around the globe, and later becoming a national champion coach. There were a few signposts pointing me in the direction of a teaching career, but the pivotal point to earn my teaching credential was the opportunity to work with amatuer surfers from San Dieguito Academy High School. For five years, I co-coached a group of fifty 9th - 12th graders and noticed I loved it! I retired from professional surfing at age 30 and entered into the sustainability space, where I worked for Baker Electric Home Energy, educating North County homeowners on the financial and environmental benefits of solar electricity, and then made the transition to teaching full-time, which I’ve been loving ever since.

Science 7 & Mr. Sherwin’s Teaching Philosophy

Science 7: The big topics of science 7 are: Matter, chemical reactions,  and the cellular processes of photosynthesis and cellular respiration. Many of the skills learned in 6th grade science will be built upon this year. These include, but are not limited to: making sense of trends in data, writing explanations, constructing an argument based on experimental data and scientific readings, and collaborating with peers to make sense of phenomena. Students will learn the science by doing the science. Scientists ask questions, design investigations to test their questions, research topics around that phenomenon, collaborate with other scientists, and a number of other things to get to the answers they seek. I will be the guide by your side, a kind and clever person here to support you in uncovering your own answers this year.

Mr. Sherwin’s Teaching Philosophy: My passion for science is rooted in my curiosity about how stuff works; I see science as a tool to help me answer the questions I have about the natural world. Although this is what I thought I would be doing in the classroom, I quickly found out that learning comes secondary to one’s emotional needs. I discovered (fairly quickly I might add), that teaching is the business of people. In 7th grade specifically, this comes back to nurturing and developing young adults during what is for some one of the most challenging times of a person’s life. Students, please know I’m here for you. As with any class, there are rules, deadlines, and certain ways of doing things, but please know that one of my top values is flexibility, particularly during this time of distance learning. Anothing thing I value is ensuring you feel safe and have everything you need to succeed in this class and throughout your education. If there is anything I can do to better support you, please let me know. This year will be a collaboration between you, myself, and the other 7th grade teachers to support your progress in becoming an independent, confident learner and person. I look forward to meeting you! 

Warmly,

Jeremy Sherwin