This year, Dee-Mack welcomes Mr. Rutan, our new chemistry and environmental science teacher. Mr. Rutan is a great guy who enjoys helping his students to be entertained in the subjects to make learning fun. He recognizes the importance of making sure a course isn’t boring so that the students can get interested in the material. In the science field, he enjoys biology and the science of the human body, focusing, he said, on “how it works, how we can make it stronger, how we can protect all of our joints, all of that stuff.” Despite not being particularly fond of chemistry in high school or college, he’s prepared himself to teach it as best he can while making it as fun as possible. He quoted his teaching mentor on the subject, saying “Realistically, you’re not going to remember 90% of what your high school teachers teach you. What you’re going to remember is the experiences you had with them and how they made you feel.”

Although he is new to Dee-Mack, Mr. Rutan is not new to the teaching game. Before coming here, he taught at two different schools in Huston, Texas for a combined 6 years, and once he moved to Illinois he taught at Morton for 2 years. Over those eight years he primarily taught Biology and Environmental Science. Outside of school, Mr. Rutan enjoys hobbies such as cooking, video games, music, books, movies, and spending time with his wife and two cats. He has expressed a large interest in many niches of entertainment that many students also enjoy, so be sure to talk to him about various games, books, or movies that you think he’d enjoy to build that student-teacher connection and conversation.

Regarding his favorite part of Dee-Mack (at least in the time he’s been here), Mr. Rutan expressed his appreciation for the people and the way he has been treated so far. He went further, saying “Pretty much everyone that I’ve met has been friendly, students and teachers. Obviously you can’t make everyone happy so there’s going to be some people who just generally don’t like you, but I’ve had positive experiences with everybody, so it’s been fun.” He does however mention the difficulty that comes with having to teach and prepare 3 separate courses (those being Chemistry 1, 2, and Environmental Science). Elaborating, he stated, “It’s been a steep learning curve for me trying to get a hold on the planning and prep time that comes with it, and how much time I should be spending on each class.” The stress of school is not exclusive to students, and as we all face new changes with the school this year, we get this feeling that we’re all navigating it together, both students and staff. Mr. Rutan illustrates this feeling well in his statement.

So with both open arms and open notebooks, we welcome Mr. Rutan to Dee-Mack, and we hope that he can continue to be a positive voice in the school to make all of our days better!