Last updated: 09/14/2009
Mr. Tetreault is not a normal person.
Mr. Tetreault has taught at Satz since 1999; before that, he taught high school in Rhode Island for two years. He has taught every Language Arts-related class at Satz. He is an avid reader, often digesting several books a week. He has written short stories, poetry, movie scripts, and song lyrics. He is a huge movie fan. He is a self-taught photographer, singer, and guitarist. He has been heavily involved with the Satz drama productions, advising the 8th grade class, and several committees, and completed his Master’s degree in administration and supervision in May ’06. He began work on his doctoral degree in September '06, and is now considering working on a Master's degree in Information and Library Sciences.
Name: Mr. Tetreault Pronounced: MIS-ter TA-tro
What I Prefer To Be Called: Mr. T, O Captain my Captain
Favorite Food: Style: Indian
Item: Taco Bell Beef and Potato Burrito
Favorite Board Games: Boggle, Trivial Pursuit
Favorite Movies: Real Genius, The Matrix, The Blues Brothers, The Muppet Movie, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, Shakespeare in Love
Favorite TV Show: Top Chef, The Office, Warehouse 13
After-school Activities/Jobs: Construction and renovation on my home, working on doctoral degree, playing guitar, grading papers, tutoring
What I like to do most at home: Read, watch movies
Favorite Magazines: Time, Reader's Digest, Popular Science, Discover, Popular Mechanics
Favorite Books: Deathkiller by Spider Robinson, Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck, anything by Shakespeare
Last Books Read Outside School: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Greene; Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, the "Public Works" trilogy by Matt Ruff
Heroes: Stephen Hawking, Batman
Favorite Subject: Creative Writing, Literature
Favorite Music Type: Rock ‘n Roll
Favorite Performers:
Musically: Van Halen, NO F/X, Bowling for Soup, Trapt, Lagwagon, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Frank Sinatra, Alkaline Trio, Orion Theory
Theatrically: Kevin Smith, Jon Favreau; Elizabeth Banks, Christina Ricci
Three words to describe you: Inquisitive, interested, determined
School would be better if: we had more time to spend on the important subjects (Language Arts)
This is what my students did last year that I liked the most: paid attention, learned something, worked hard but didn't worry about grades, enjoyed my class
This is what my students did last year that I liked least: didn't pay attention, bothered other people, complained, didn't do their work, did not take responsibility for their own actions
What do you hope to learn from this course? How I can improve myself as well as my students
Tell me about you (anything else you feel is relevant): I like to have fun in my classroom, but my idea of fun and yours might be different. That's okay; you just have to let yourself enjoy my class. I love communicating, and the English language in particular; I love to read, I love to write. I am a huge movie fan. I like to ride my motorcycle as frequently as I am able. I think most of my students are capable of doing a lot more than they let on. I think "work" is not a dirty word; in fact, "work" can be fun. I like working on a project, and the feeling of accomplishment when I do a good job.
My Summer Vacation:
My summer vacation actually began back in April. Over the course of a week, my wife and I went from deciding to add a bathroom to our one-bathroom house to deciding to sell our house and buy something else. We spent the next few months looking, and we ended up purchasing our new house the day summer vacation began.
Most of the rest of my summer involved working on the fixer-upper home we had purchased. When my wife went off to work each morning, I did, too, working on re-wiring outlets, replacing handles and doors, moving around 12 tons of crushed stone, trying to smooth out the yard and grow a lawn... It has been quite a project!
In between working on our new home, I was making some repairs on and maintaining our old home while we waited for someone to buy it. Although there was a lot of work to do on the new place, the two months of waiting for the sale to close on the old house was by far the most stressful item of the sunny season! Finally, we managed to dot all the i's and cross all the t's, and we were back to only owning one home.
Somewhere in between projects I managed to squeeze in a weekend with my eight-month-old nephew, who is the cutest child ever. Even though he was teething, which makes babies grouchy, he was mostly laughter and smiles. He had some great toys that I enjoyed playing with, also, which helped smooth over the times when he was fussy.
My wife and I still have big plans for our new home, so I have lots of projects to keep working on, but doing carpentry, electrical work, and landscaping all summer was, in a way, relaxing, and has helped me get mentally prepared for the new school year.