At the beginning of the school year, Del Val welcomed new special education math teacher Donovan Smith. Smith will be teaching foundation classes to students of all grade levels. 

Smith attended Rutgers University and got a degree in chemical engineering. From there, he realized that chemical engineering was not his passion, so he took the alternate route, which is a pathway that allows industry professionals to pivot to different jobs. Since then, he has become a teacher and is continuing to work on training courses. 

“Chemical engineering jobs don’t tend to make the world any better and I feel like a teaching job has a bigger impact,” Smith said. 

Throughout the school year, Smith is excited to help make a difference in his students’ education by introducing real world occurrences into his lessons. 

“At the start of every lesson, I have a do now that is based on math I saw in the real world,” Smith said. “The only way to make math interesting is to make it as real as possible because then students see the point in doing it.”

Smith grew up in Hunterdon County and attended Voorhees High School, which is one of the main reasons he decided to work at Del Val.

Smith expressed both the importance of  basic problem solving skills and math skills for life outside of school. 

“I want my students to learn general problem solving and puzzle solving skills,” Smith said. “Chunking down problems is more important to learn than other math concepts like distribution.” 

Through his years in teaching, Smith wants to make sure that his students know that they are supported and that he will always be there to help if needed. 

“I hope that anytime the kids are struggling, they realize that I am not just trying to push everyone through but get each student where they want to be,” Smith said.