As students work on their AP Calculus homework, some are confused when the teacher pulls up a seat next to them to talk about the importance of staying hydrated. However, as the year goes on, many will learn to enjoy the happy and helpful presence of David Snaith. As hands sprout up, Mr. Snaith goes around the room, willing to help students with concepts, homework, or whatever else they may need. When the bell rings, students wave goodbye and grab a pack of Welch’s fruit snacks on their way out.

Though many students recognize Snaith’s passion and experience in teaching, many don’t know that his career started at a small bank in Basalt, Colorado. He had wanted to be a teacher since college, but his plans fell through after he graduated. He was an intern at a local bank throughout his college years, and once he was out of school, the bank offered him more than double the salary of a teacher to keep him there. It was an easy decision. “It was like, cut the hair, shave the beard off, now you’re a banker,” he said.

Banking was a satisfactory job for Snaith. He was good at it, and he enjoyed the social aspect of it, yet he still felt the itch to teach. Luckily for Mr. Snaith, after eight years of working at the bank, his future came knocking. A friend in the area told him that the local community college was severely lacking in teachers, and needed someone to teach an algebra class. He graciously accepted, but found that things weren’t so simple. He explained that there was no guidance, they simply handed him an algebra textbook and told him to teach a group of college students. “It was like, throw you into the fire and teach this class.” Even so, he enjoyed it.

So, for three years, he taught community college students before moving back to his birthplace of California to pursue it as a full time job. “I started teaching, and I got the teacher bug, and that was it,” he said. When this move happened, his focus shifted off of college and fully onto the high school scene, specifically at San Rafael High. High school was much more suited to him, forcing him to work on himself and allowing him to have more fun.

“I really liked the challenge of having every kind of student in the room,” he said. “I couldn’t just explain things one way. It forced me to reevaluate my understanding of math.”

This was the beginning of the Snaith we see today. The teacher that talks with a loud and authoritative voice, yet mumbles to himself as he explains algorithms on the whiteboard. The man who can be serious, sarcastic, and funny all within the span of a minute. His bright and lively nature makes a very stressful class far more enjoyable.

“He has such a teacher’s personality,” said Ms. Fortune, a math teacher and good friend of Mr. Snaith at SRHS. “He is great at the math, but he is so personable with people.”

Mr. Snaith shows his passion for teaching through his unbounded energy. As he bounces from one side of the whiteboard to another, it’s hard to lose focus on the show he puts on while he teaches.

“I’ve always been a very animated person myself… a little hyperactive, if you couldn’t tell,” he told me with a big laugh. Although, he explained to me, things weren’t always like that. If I was in his class fifteen years ago, things would have been very different. Teachers are often much more stressed about learning the content themselves in their first years, but Mr. Snaith thinks that his knowledge has evolved far enough to allow him to have fun and not worry during class. He even feels that he knows where students will make mistakes, and prepares for that.

Back in elementary and middle school, Mr. Snaith’s energy was actually a problem. “I had a lot of meetings…with the Dean and the principal and my parents about me being spastic in class,” he said, laughing again. “We didn’t diagnose ADHD back then, but I would have certainly been diagnosed.” Now, this fizzling energy is what makes a class as challenging as AP Calculus bearable to attend for students early in the morning. An energetic start to students’ days can really set them up with a better mindset for the rest of the day.

While I was talking with Mr. Snaith, a group of students came in asking for help on a project. Without hesitating, he asked me for a moment to help them quickly. He got them a few things and politely asked them to work quietly, then happily started talking to me again.

As a student of Mr. Snaith, I have found that he always jumps on the opportunity to help. He doesn’t just want his students to write down the notes and be on their way. He genuinely wants to help them understand and thrive in a class that many students struggle in.

Mr. Snaith paints a perfect picture of who should be teaching and influencing the younger generations. As a man who gives out snacks, helps kids with homework, and has casual conversations with students during class, he’s more than just the average teacher. “It’s not localized at all to just math,” said Ms. Fortune. “He does everything.”