Dave Robles

Teaching makes Mr. Dave Robles feel alive! His seventh year in the game finds him headquartered in the Howard of Harlem, St. Charles Borromeo School. His fifth graders know him as delightfully insane, and sometimes caring. He is an amalgam of all the wonderful teachers he had, including the marvelous Morrells. His favorite thing about teaching is figuring out how to be the teacher he needed when he was a kid growing up in New York City. In his A train reflections, he comes before the empty page, laying out the contents of the day, sifting through the gold and the dross; he sifts through the moments when the teaching fell short, and the moments when students lit up in awe and wonder. What would charismatic Mr. Wole Alade do? He taught African drumming during his senior year in high school. How would witty Mr. Regan approach this? He taught a popular Satire and Comedy elective. How would Ms. Jean St. Pierre, Mr. Meredith Price, Mr. Craig Thorn, Mr. Edouard Plummer, Reverend Zaeder, Dr. Diane Stewart, Dr. Mary Ni, Dr. Mary Hobgood, or Dr. Jim Nickoloff deal with this student at this moment? How would his Tio Augie get through to this particular student? They would all agree that every amazing student epiphany in a classroom reflects an equal capacity on the part of the teacher orchestrating it.