His career took a change for the better

Mr. Paul Meihaus teacher Math at Armijo, but that wasn’t his original career goal.

When he was a high school student and when he started college, Mr. Meihaus was actually interested in studying to become a lawyer, but his interests changed and he decided to get an undergraduate and graduate degree in Business Administration. At that point, he was hoping to teach at the college level. 

Mr. Meihaus went to the University of Santa Clara for two years, and then transferred to Woodbury College, a small business school in Los Angeles. He went on to receive his Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Golden Gate University in San Francisco. 

Although he knew what he wanted to do, the course of his career changed in the mid-1990’s. That’s when he began teaching summer school and substitute teaching to get experience teaching at the public level and to get a feel for the work. Sometime later, he found that being a math teacher was something he really wanted to do, so “I decided to pursue getting my Math credential so I could find full-time positions,” he said. 

Mr. Meihaus started teaching high school in 1997 and he still enjoys teaching mathematics over any other subject.  He said, “I truly do enjoy teaching math and I have always been drawn to the challenge of the subject, and the logic it requires to problem solve,” he said. 

Math isn’t the only thing that he has taught, though. “The district asked me to teach senior level English for a summer session in the early 2000’s,” he said, “and when substitute teaching… I taught Science, English, and Music.”

His subject is not always easy, but Mr. Meihaus enjoys helping his students become successful. He recognizes that math, for some people, takes a little bit more work for some students. “Teaching takes a lot of patience, and I have developed a better understanding and practice of patience teaching during these many years,” he said. “Each student is unique and learns at their own pace and in their own way, so I needed to work on understanding the learning needs of my students in order to best help them succeed in the subject.”

“I hope that I can dispel any fears about the subject and help them realize that succeeding in a difficult subject like Math is possible, and with a little hard work and in collaboration with me as their teacher, together can help them achieve their academic goals and successfully graduate from high school,” said Mr. Meihaus. “I am always in the hopes my students will keep open the possibility for them to pursue college after high school.”