I took the liberty of interviewing our very own Mr. Montone, an earth science teacher here at Victor High School. He has been teaching at Victor for 30 years. I asked some questions about his experience as an earth science educator, and some interesting questions about how he deals with students on the daily.
As anybody who has been in his class before knows, he used to be a carpenter and worked for his own business building homes. The house they live in now was one of the last projects Montone did. He loves spending time with his family, whether it be backpacking, camping, traveling, hiking, snowmobiling, boating, jetskiing, or riding his beloved Harley Davidsons.
We talked about the reasons he got into teaching “I loved-one, the lifestyle, of course, but two, I really enjoy working with students.” His mission is to make an impact on his stud
ents and to educate them on the world around them. “For me, Earth science is everything. If youunderstand it, it is everything in the world around us — from the food that we eat, the air that we breathe, the water we enjoy. It’s everything… and I try to portray that in class and have students see the connection with the real world.”
Throughout the year Mr. Montone tries to keep the students engaged by keeping it relevant, throughout the (boring at times) curriculum. Kids get disinterested quickly so he trie
s to keep it lighthearted and fun and relate to his students, but he also keeps the line between focused and funny strong, so his students are ready for the end of the year.
Mr. Montone’s favorite topics to teach, as a geology enthusiast, are: earthquakes, volcanos, and plate techtonics.
His favorite colors are black and red, he loves them on cars and motorcycles. He loves music, especially; country, rock, metal (Ozzy, Creed, Nirvana), Journey, etc.
Overall Mr. Montone is a big family man, and I would even call his students his family. He spends his afterschool doing review classes and sacrificing his time in the name of earth science to teach us about the world around us. If you didn’t know Mr. Montone, now you do, a big family man, a dedicated leader, and inspirational to his students like me.
