After 17 years as physics and business teacher, Kirk Davis will retire at the end of the school year.
With Davis’s retirement, Intro to Business has been discontinued as a class offering, while Regular Physics will most likely be taught by science teacher Jennifer Lee, Davis said.
Prior to his mid-career switch to teaching, Davis worked in the healthcare industry and business field for almost 30 years. He recalls that his inspiration to begin teaching was sparked by his children’s poor experiences with math and science teachers, who he thought usually explained class content poorly and contributed to a lack of understanding.
In 2007, he stepped away from his career in industry and tried his hand at teaching Physics and Introduction to Business at the school.
“I liked it, and then decided I would do it, but I only wanted to continue doing it as long as I was still really enjoying it,” Davis said. “I still get a kick out of the kids; it’s just that other things in my life have taken priority.”
After the recent birth of his first grandchild, Davis has decided to spend more time with his family. Since all his children live relatively far away — with a daughter living in New York, a daughter in London and a son who lives in San Francisco — Davis said he wants to allocate more time to traveling and visiting them.
Davis also hopes to spend more time pursuing his hobbies.
“I like to bike and golf so I’ll be able to do that a little bit more often,” Davis said. “I also have taken up woodworking so I’ve got a little woodworking place in my garage. I’m gonna do a lot more stuff and just have more time to relax.”
Davis said he will miss the projects his students create in Introduction to Business, including a culminating activity where students create a business proposal for any real-world product they want to market and present it to the whole class. One of the most memorable efforts was a binder whose selling point was that it would be made of Kevlar, the material for bulletproof vests, and would be highly durable as a result.
“There have been some really interesting business presentations throughout the years, and I enjoy seeing students being able to express their knowledge in business as well as their creativity,” he said.
While Davis looks forward to what retirement holds, he hopes his students will continue to grow both academically and socially. Davis mentioned he has tried to be empathetic and reasonable to foster an engaging and inclusive environment where his students can feel comfortable.
Davis feels that he gets a “kick” out of his interactions with students, especially since he believes that the students give off a great amount of energy considering they often say some of the “dumbest” and “smartest” things.
Junior Eunice Ching, who takes Physics with Davis, said she greatly appreciates Davis’s ability to connect with his students.
“He’s funny, he really relates to the students and is sort of ‘hip’ with the kids,” she said.
Ching, who is also a part of the golf team, recalls that Davis would always put an effort into starting conversations regarding their shared interest in golf.
“In class, he would always bring up golf with me, so I think it’s cool that he tries to find similarities between students and talk about them, and he does it with other students as well,” Ching said.
