My name is Ben Wilson, and this will be my 12th year teaching middle school. I was born in California, and in addition to living there, I have lived in Washington, Colorado, and Oregon.
My name is Ben Wilson, and this will be my 12th year teaching middle school.
I was born in California, and in addition to living there, I have lived in Washington, Colorado, and Oregon.
As a child, I had a real passion for art, and as I headed to middle school I wanted to take as many art classes as I possibly could. That passion continued throughout high school and into college.
In 1999 I attended Linn-Benton Community College, and that's where I fell in love with mathematics. Initially, I was taking math classes to get requirements for my degree out of the way. Later I found myself taking math classes for a variety of other reasons: I wanted to know what types of math are out there and how they are used, I wanted to strengthen my foundation in mathematics, and I wanted to improve my ability to teach math to others. For me, more than anything, I am in love with the language of numbers.
After receiving my Associate of Arts Oregon Transfer degree, I transferred to Oregon State University where I earned my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in figure drawing. Finally, I went to Western Oregon University where I got my Master of Arts in Teaching degree.
As I was attending college in 2001, I started working at LBCC with the math department, the department of developmental studies, and the department of disability services. While there, I would tutor in various ways to individuals and small groups. In 2012 I left LBCC to work at Scio Middle School, where I taught for two years. While I was there I taught basic and advanced 7th and 8th grade math, two math elective classes that I designed, and 8th grade art. After my time in Scio, I taught 6th and 7th grade math at Calapooia Middle School in Albany for two years. After that, I taught at Ashbrook Independent School for 6 years. In addition to teaching Pre-Algebra 1, Advanced Algebra 1, Foundations of Algebra, Geometry, and Algebra 2, I have taught 4 Drawing classes, 2 classes on Time Travel, a class on Game Design, the Yearbook classes, Math Lab, Scrapbooking, Astronomy, Painting Rocks!, Film Appreciation, Videography, and a class on the History of Numbers.
In 2019, I married my best friend, Anne. She is an amazing 3rd grade teacher at Edison Elementary in Eugene, where we live. Then, in April of 2020, we welcomed our son Bodhi into the world. :)
I'm really excited to continue as part of the team at Shasta, and I'm looking forward to an amazing year helping students discover, expand on, and refine the subjects about which they are passionate.