English teacher joins staff after working at private school for 12 years

After teaching for 12 years at a private Jewish school, English teacher Chris McAdamis is fitting in well at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School (DPMHS).

“It was time for a change,” said McAdamis, who previously taught at Milken Community School. 

During his first semester at DPMHS, he is teaching regular and Honors English 10AB. Next semester, he will instruct 12th grade English and AP Language. Although it wasn’t always his dream to become a teacher, McAdamis’ love for the study of literature has been a constant. He especially appreciates how stories, both nonfiction and fiction, mirror and help students understand their own life experiences.

“It’s fun to be with teenagers and teach them,” McAdamis said. “It’s the right time to talk about the hero’s journey and myths but also about how (those stories) relate to them and all the changes they’re going through because being a teenager is a very dynamic time.”

One of his teaching goals for the year is to show students how to annotate a text in a way that simplifies the process of writing a response. He stresses the idea of completing preparatory work to make the more tedious tasks that follow easier.

The 4×4 schedule at DPMHS is a new adjustment for McAdamis, who found a way to compress his course curriculum into two mesters. He understands that speeding through the same amount of material as his previous classes would overwhelm the students, not allowing sufficient time for the necessary literacy skills to take root. 

“I can’t go too fast,” McAdamis said. “One way my goals have shifted is that we don’t have to read a ton of books or anything. It’s just making sure that we cover the skills that students need over that time.”

Aside from teaching, McAdamis loves his two cats, the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons and playing the guitar. However, his ultimate passion is focused on teaching, which made McAdamis stand out during the school’s interviewing process. 

“Love for the subject matters,” said counselor Martina Torres, who is on the school’s interview committee. “When a teacher is passionate about their subject, they often go above and beyond the minimum of what they need to teach. That’s what we like at our school.”