For the past 15 years, Mr. Michael Blum has been a familiar face at Armijo High School, teaching Spanish at three different levels. ”Before teaching, I was a jazz radio DJ, a coffee house guitarist, and even a phone fundraiser,” he said.

It was because he witnessed his own father teaching Russian that he decided to become a language teacher himself. “The students were drawn and involved,” he said. “The first time I saw him teach I was 10 years old.  Like broadcasting, I had hoped to improve the paths of every person I could affect.”

Just as he was influenced by his father’s experience, Mr. Blum hopes he has influenced some of his students, but he knows that teaching is hard and requires a lot. For those going into teaching, he encourages them to “have a work ethic, a heart, and a way to connect to your students for their futures.”

Connection is important to him and he’d like to see it extended beyond the classroom. “[Armijo] needs to be more community-involved,” he said. “Students need to understand how to affect forward for others to march forward.”

Mr. Blum’s own march forward started near Philadelphia. “I graduated from Perkiomen… I spent an unwise year at Temple University, gained my first BA in Speech and Communication at Edinboro University, my second BA at the University of South Alabama, my first Master’s at Chapman University in curriculum and instruction, and my second Master’s at the University of Salamanca in Spain… My love for origin and roots drove me through my second Master’s.”

In his spare time, he likes to travel, play music and occasionally write.