Science teacher James Keil began his teaching career as a long-term sub at Richard Montgomery before spending two years at Blake High School. This year, Mr. Keil has returned full-time, and is already changing the staff and student environment.

“It’s nice to get to have him back again,” Ms. Boccher, the head of the science department, said. Mr. Keil had been both a long term sub and student teacher at RM, but with no openings available, he took a position at Blake. “[I] really enjoyed Blake. I liked my colleagues there, but I was just looking to try something different,” Mr. Keil said. The IB program was one of the draws of Richard Montgomery. Having prior experience with IB classes himself through his time at Bethesda Chevy Chase High School, he values its rigor and effectiveness. “I feel like I learned so much about how to read documents, understand sources. My writing skills improved a lot there. It’s a really fantastic program,” he said.

Mr. Keil earned a chemistry degree at the University of Maryland, but didn’t have a clear career plan at the time. During college, he spent two years tutoring and coaching the Montgomery Blair High School rowing team. After college, he served two years in Americorps. “I really enjoyed [Americorps]…I was working with middle and high schoolers, and I think that really solidified that I really enjoyed teaching,” Mr. Keil said.

Despite the challenge of transitioning to a new school, Mr. Keil’s start at RM has been relatively smooth. He attributes part of his success to his prior experience here. “I did some long term subbing here and then came back in that fall to do my student teaching here, and so I had some connections,” Mr. Keil said. When RM finally opened a science position, he says he knew it was the right choice.

Now, Mr. Keil teaches both Honors Chemistry and IB Environmental Systems and Societies (IB ESS). IB ESS is a unique course offered within RM’s IB program that combines environmental science and social studies by emphasizing ecological principles, sustainability and the relationship between human societies and natural systems. “It’s a really great class, and it covers a lot of things like bio and chem,” senior Matthew Li, a student in Mr. Keil’s IB ESS class, said.

Creating a solid lesson plan for a new course required significant time and preparation. “I’ve had a lot of support from my colleagues, Mr. Decker, who’s taught this in the past, and then some materials that other teachers have developed,” Mr. Keil said. Because this course is new to RM, curriculum design has required constant adjustment, and this has been no easy task. “There’s been a lot of redevelopment of things and everything that I try to do, I need to make sure, okay, is this still in the current scope of the course,” he said.

Honors Chemistry has also come with challenges. “One of the big things for me has just been learning how they teach honors chemistry here, which is just a little bit different from how I’ve done it in the past.”

A major factor in Mr. Keil’s success is his distinctive teaching philosophy. “In terms of the spectrum of teachers, I definitely have a more of a laissez-faire approach to things,” he said. His more laid back approach is characterized by his promotion of critical thinking. Rather than supplying answers, he encourages students to experiment, adjust and solve problems independently. “The end result [of critical thinking] is to build up the confidence in students to just try stuff out and see what happens… ‘Okay, this approach isn’t working—what else might I try?’”

Mr. Keil frequently integrates puzzle activities and small group challenges to introduce or reinforce concepts. “I think students enjoy the puzzles themselves and I think the end result of critical thinking, hopefully is something that percolates through,” he said. Many of his students like this approach. “[Mr. Keil’s teaching] gives us the direct understanding of the correlations instead of just textbook words,” Li said.

A typical day in Mr. Keil’s class consists of a warmup exercise, an instruction period and a feedback or data-collection activity to evaluate understanding. His flexible, low-pressure environment resonates well with students as he encourages different note-taking styles questions, and fosters approachability. “Mr. Keil has an interesting personality and it’s nice to talk with him,” senior Adhi Ponraj said.

Labs also play a key role in Mr. Keil’s classes. For IB ESS, he took students outside for a transect study where they set up posts at different distances from a stream and measured the amount of vegetation and tree cover to see how the distance affects those variables. “These simulations are really helpful because it would be hard to actually go through some in real life. It also gives us a direct understanding of the correlations (between real life and class material) instead of just textbook words,” Li said.

Beyond the classroom, Mr. Keil has quickly become a major part of RM’s science department. “He fits right in and gets along with all of us. He has a unique and hilarious sense of humor,” Dr. Karl Kovacs, an IB magnet Bio teacher at RM who trained alongside Mr. Keil during their certification process, said.

He has even introduced a staff tradition: Tuesday Game Day, a weekly event for teachers in the science department to play games and puzzles together. “He has an appreciation for games and puzzles,” Ms. Boccher noted. Mr. Keil participated in this tradition at Blake and upon seeing enthusiasm for it at RM, introduced it here. “It’s fun to get a chance to play new games and see my colleagues in different contexts,” he said. Mr. Keil is also an active member of the Honors Chemistry Team, a group of chemistry teachers who meet regularly to perfect lessons and support students.

Even in his first year, Mr. Keil has become heavily involved in student life. He sponsored a club and is thinking of modifications to classes next year and further developing the IB course. To get involved with the student community, he attended RM musical’s production, “Newsies,” performed by the Black Maskers. “I could not believe the amount of community support that came out for that,” he said. “It’s really wonderful to see just how much the students and the parents and everybody’s involved, not just in the academics, but in everything here.”

Mr. Keil’s educational philosophy centers around support, patience and opportunity. “My philosophy is to offer as much help and support as I can,” he said. He encourages all his students to take advantage of the vast network of support and opportunities available to them. “Try it out,” he said. “That’s a really good pathway to success.”