Dee-Mack is host to many exceptional teachers, but few are more involved than Mr. Reiman. From serving in the Military, to coaching girls volleyball, to completing his master’s degree during the school year. Mr. Reiman served in the Army from 1998-2006 and during this time he was in three different bases, Ft. Learnordwood in Missouri, Presidio of Monterey in California, and Goodfellow Air Force Base in Texas. He went to these bases for his basic and advanced training to be a Signals Intelligence Analyst, extracting and analyzing foreign communication through electromagnetic emissions. Once he finished his training he was moved to Ft. Meade in Maryland to work for the National Security Agency analyzing foreign intelligence. For his final three years of service, Mr. Reiman was an Army recruiter out of Pekin, IL. He said that he enlisted in the Army to continue his family’ tradition, following his grandfather, his father, and two of his uncles who also enlisted in the Armed Forces. Him and his cousin continued the tradition, with his cousin enlisting in the Navy as well.
Outside of school, Mr. Reiman enjoys playing and watching sports. He follows the Buffalo Bills, Phoenix Suns, and Chicago White Sox. He started playing volleyball while in the military, but his interest grew when he attended ISU to be a teacher. He started out by playing pick-up games with friends. Being a natural athlete, he picked up the game very quickly, and eventually started playing in different competitive leagues across central Illinois from 2010-2019. He said that he enjoys playing volleyball because it’s a great way to have fun and exercise, and it’s easy to start a game. To play volleyball, you can have as few as four people or as many as twelve.
After being given many leadership roles in the military, Mr. Reiman realized that he wanted to be a teacher. He said “I was the special emphasis physical training instructor: helping soldiers who struggle passing the physical fitness test meet the standards. I was also eventually the land navigation instructor: teaching soldiers how to read terrain maps and navigate from one location to another. I was a math for signal intelligence instructor: teaching soldiers basic math skills they would need in their respective jobs.” He said that while in this role, he enjoyed helping and seeing others succeed, and that teaching was the best career for him to continue to do so. He ended up choosing math due to the fact that he loved it while he was in school and he thought he would have the most fun teaching it. Mr. Reiman attended Illinois State University and graduated in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics Education and minors in History Education and Spanish. His college experience was irregular, he first entered college at 26 years old, married, and with a young son.
By serving in the military Mr. Reiman earned a GI Bill and Illinois Veterans Grant to pay for his schooling. He says that his favorite experience from college was making the friends that he would play volleyball with, most of which he is still great friends with today. He returned to ISU in the fall of 2019, and earned his masters in mathematics in the spring of this year! After he graduated from ISU, he taught at Normal Community High School. He said that he didn’t like the big-school setting, and despised walking through the hallways and not knowing all of the students. He left Normal Community and applied at Hartem, Roanoke, Heyworth, and Dee-Mack. After being offered the job at three of the four schools, he decided on Dee-Mack due to the enthusiasm shown during the interview. He said in his interview “I obviously made the right decision as I love being at Deemack. The small school feel was and is exactly what I wanted. Knowing close to 80% of the students and having the close knit community feel is what I needed in my teaching career.”
Mr. Reiman has done more for this school and community than we could ever know, and we are all grateful to have him here at Dee-Mack!
