Patrick Roisen
Patrick Roisen teaches AP and freshman biology at M-A. Roisen describes his after-school talents as making puns, imitating a heartbeat, and practicing martial arts.
Roisen says he has always been quick-witted. In middle school, he says he would use his quick wit to make fun of people. After realizing that only annoyed his peers, he redirected his energy from making fun of people to making puns. His ability to make a pun out of everything is a Roisen trademark. “It’s entertaining to me, it’s often entertaining to students, it’s even more entertaining when it bugs someone,” he said.
Roisen also practiced jiu-jitsu throughout college. Jiu-jitsu concentrates on grappling, ground control, and submission holds. Roisen says he enjoyed spending time practicing jiu-jitsu moves and says it helped him develop a wide range of skills. Whether that means balancing on one foot while the other foot touches his nose, or learning how to fall without getting injured.
John Giambruno
John Giambruno teaches five classes at M-A, including Digital 3-D Modeling Animation, Digital Filmmaking, and Digital Communications. Outside of teaching, he is a black belt in Kuk Sool Won, a Korean martial art, which he practices two to three times a week.
Giambruno started karate in high school, before stopping for years. He returned to the sport in 2019. In his most recent tournament, Giambruno got second place in sparring, and was awarded grand champion of the whole tournament. Giambruno’s favorite skills include board breaking, training with a bow staff, and point sparring. “I do like punching and kicking people for fun,” he said.
Giambruno says Kuk Sool Won is a good, fun exercise, and plans on continuing it for many more years. “It’s like any workout: you don’t want to start it, but then once you’re done with that workout, you’re like, ‘Oh, thank god I did that,’” he said.
Alan Eaton
Alan Eaton is a World Language teacher, teaching all Latin classes and AS English II. Outside of school, he partakes in a variety of activities such as fishing, reading, photography, and gardening. Eaton enjoys spending time outside, saying that it is a way to connect spiritually with the world around him. “I approach going outside like a Disney princess,” Eaton said. “I sort of assume that every bird that’s out there is there to say hey.”
At home, Eaton enjoys maintaining his own garden, which he has nurtured for the past few years. “It was hard to find a way to create a garden that could be for all animals,” Eaton said. After a few struggles in choosing what plants would fit best for his environment, he chose a few specifics. He grows kumquats, oranges, and an array of flowers. Eaton says this activity of growing plants is an interesting way to pass the time. “I find I feel most human not in a city or group, but when I am in nature and birds and bees. It’s there I feel freer to be,” Eaton said.
Katie Lavoie
Katie Lavoie is a government and US history teacher. While she is a full-time teacher, Lavoie is also a part-time world traveler. She has been to a grand total of 45 countries, though she especially enjoys exploring off-the-beaten-path locations such as Albania, Armenia, and Ukraine.
Lavoie’s fascination with world travel began at 16 during her first trip with her father to Burkina Faso in West Africa. She credits the trip with opening her eyes to the power of new cultures and space. “I find travel to be the most powerful form of learning about not only the world but also myself,” Lavoie said. Personally, she’s found Georgia to be her favorite travel destination because of its diverse terrain and its people’s hospitality.
Jennifer Payne
Jennifer Payne is M-A’s only statistics teacher. Payne has many after-school hobbies like reading, playing tennis, and building Legos. However, the activity she spends the most time doing is tap dancing.
Payne has been dancing since age 3, although her passion for tap dance didn’t fully develop until high school. After a dance hiatus through college and her early teaching years, she resumed her passion at Studio S Broadway in Redwood City, where she found adult dance courses in a multitude of dance types.
Payne finds tap to be beneficial to both the body and the psyche, saying it encompasses all aspects of the human body. She also finds it to be helpful in her own teaching career. “I think it’s fun to take classes, so it’s not teaching all the time,” Payne said. “I think it helps give me a little bit of perspective of what my students are going through when they’re listening to me.”
