Jesse Combs
Jesse Combs has been a teacher for six years, previously working at a school in Chicago, and now teaches 10th grade Honors Algebra 2 and 11th grade Trigonometry and Analysis at the high school. Combs also has a decorated athletic career: he was a three time All-American runner at the collegiate level and played men’s college volleyball.
Where are you from, and where did you go to school?
I am from southeastern Kentucky, literally the middle of nowhere. My hometown is extremely small. We had one traffic light that was useless because everyone always ran it. I was a first generation college student, a first generation high school graduate actually. I went to Union College in Kentucky where I double majored in math and chemistry.
How was your experience at Union College in Kentucky?
I became the Student Government Association (SGA) president, and I shook some things up. I went to a school that is known for sports, so we had a lot of student athletes. But, we had a lot of student athletes who were ineligible for their sport because in college, much like a lot of high schools, you have to maintain a certain GPA. The number of athletes we had on campus is astronomical- more than two-thirds of the campus was also an athlete. Out of that two-thirds, I would say at least 20 percent were ineligible. I created a study space for athletes because in college you often have two-a-day workouts. I actually got the funding, and we built an entire building for it.
Why do you teach math?
I choose to teach math because I really enjoy it. I know it sounds a little strange for someone to actually love math but it’s kind of beautiful and I want to bring some joy to the math classroom. I don’t like people frowning, and I don’t want to see people bored and hating math. I am trying to change that, and I do so by implementing technology and humor.
Do you have any favorite teaching moments?
Off the top of my head, in Chicago at the end of every year, I do a project for my classes where students have to create a parody music video about the content that we’ve learned throughout the year. Every year there is always a student who chooses to write their own song, and there was one student in particular, his name was Chris Blackburn, who wrote a song called “Comb’s Class”, and he got to perform it at the end of year school assembly.