Tom Shefler teaches AP physics, mechanics and physics, principles of engineering, and astronomy.

When inquired about why he was nominated he said, “I wasn’t told what the criteria were, or whether it was a just name out of a hat but either way I’m happy to be honored.”

Mr. Shefler has been teaching since the year 2000 at Granada, which was his first teaching job. This year is his 24th year teaching for Granada.

Shefler stated, “They were willing to hire me which was a big plus I was just coming out of grad school, I went to grad school thinking I was going to be an astrophysicist and there were some semesters where I was a teaching assistant and some semesters where I was a research assistant. I found that I was having a lot more fun as a teaching assistant. As a teacher then I was doing research, so after I got my masters degree I started seeing which schools in the bay area were hiring and fortunately for me Granada was one of them.”

When asked what he thought was special about his teaching, Mr. Shefler said, “I really enjoy teaching, I think it’s really fun. I like to draw connections between things, connections between say math and physics or physics and astronomy or engineering and how knowledge and one can feed into another.”