Gail Swiryn

I've always been a curious person and science came naturally to me. My parents would often find mysterious "experiments" in our freezer when I was a child. I played outdoors all the time. I climbed rocks and trees, built forts and rope swings, and this is how I figured out the workings of our world. The inquisitiveness we have as children somehow tends to get replaced as we grow up and face the "real world". I hope that my students are inspired to maintain this curiosity as they navigate their own lives and that they leave my class unafraid to ask questions about how and why the world works, because scientists never lose this.

 

Students will quickly learn that I LOVE playing Ultimate Frisbee. I've been playing for 25 years and have played Nationals and most recently competed at Worlds in Ireland so, you could say I'm pretty serious about it. Ultimate Frisbee is a special sport and lifestyle dictated by "Spirit Of The Game". I also love skiing, having learned at age 4 in my front yard in NY continuing all the way to becoming a ski instructor at Telluride. I enjoyed weekends of rock climbing in upstate NY at "the Gunks" and Joshua Tree throughout my college years. I also used to be an ice climber and caver! Nowadays you'll find me camping, backpacking or, more often than not, reading a book (aka napping) in a sun-soaked hammock by a river.

 

I landed in education about 14 years ago but I've had a few varied jobs in my past. The most unique was my time spent at the Biosphere 2 Center in Tucson, AZ where I learned much about environmental education and experienced the passion my own instructors exuded while I was a student there. I graduated with BS in Natural Science from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles where I studied variation in bird calls as well as publishing a paper on human impacts to the wetlands in that area. I also have a Masters in Landscape Architecture from the University of Arizona which I utilized as the Landscape Architect for the Forest Service in Sedona, AZ. I'm originally from NY and have lived in CA, AZ, Kauai, and Ouray, CO before settling here in Douglas County. I currently live in Parker with my two teenage boys who attend Castle View HS. They are active, hilarious, and caring kids who keep me on my toes (and still take forever to put their shoes on!)

 

Thank you for choosing Renaissance Secondary School for your child. I'm honored to be a Middle School Science teacher where students really start making decisions for themselves and lifelong pathways form. Let the curiosity flow!

 

- Ms. Gail "SCIENCE IS REAL!!" -They Might Be Giants