At the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year at Sequoyah’s high school, the Sequoyah community was introduced to a number of new faculty and staff members who are building on Sequoyah’s respectful and loving community. Among these newly introduced teachers is Roy Nyberg, who teaches physics to the high school’s freshmen, along with an SAS Physics course to upperclassmen.
Nyberg spoke with The Barefoot Times about his experience teaching and his transition to Sequoyah. He has taught “math and physics in the LA area since about 2009, most recently at Vistamar School,” a high school in the El Segundo area. At Nyberg’s old school he didn’t see his classes every day due to the school’s specialized courses. “I love to see my classes every day,” Nyberg remarked. “That was probably the thing that I was a little nervous about [at Sequoyah] because that was different from my last school.”
Of the atmosphere at Sequoyah, Nyberg observed, “Sequoyah is friendly…The students here are very open to trying the things you ask them to do; as a teacher you want to get [them] engaged with what you are trying to present.” When asked about how his classes are managed, Nyberg responded with a simple, “I’ve been given a very free rein with how I want to run my class.” As a member of the high school faculty community, he, “come[s] together with the other teachers to talk about the big picture, [the] direction of education at Sequoyah, [and] what it should look like from freshman to senior year.”
The most challenging part about the Sequoyah academic experience for Nyberg has been perfecting his class’s Learning Outcomes. “Making LOs that [he] feel[s] good about, that are meaningful, and that [he] can personally respond to” was a big part of Nyberg’s brainstorming process.
As a new faculty member starting at Sequoyah, Nyberg was introduced to a number of co-curricular activities that he had not engaged in before, including SIP and Stewardship. He remarked, “teaching physics was probably the one thing that I fully understood when looking at the agenda.” In his role as a SIP facilitator, Nyberg has been working with the juniors on their impact projects. He noted that they “have been doing a great job with finding their own projects. As of right now it’s going great.”
In his free time, Nyberg enjoys exploring “the neighborhood here, and…doing dancing and jujitsu.” He also stated that he “loves that [he] can have summers off.” When asked about how he felt about Sequoyah camping trips, he replied, “The Colorado River trip was great! I got a tan and didn’t get the river flu.” Prior to this November’s twelfth grade canoe trip, he had never been camping with a school before.
Nyberg has had a very positive and enriching experience at Sequoyah. He looks forward to the future of Sequoyah School and is excited to support the development of its students. He hopes to have an amazing time doing it.
