Kevin Nugent

I am thrilled to be part of the pioneer teaching team of Friends’ first Middle School class. I truly love teaching middle schoolers, and appreciate their energy, thinking, humor, and individuality. I believe the role of a middle school teacher is to help the learner explore their passions while preparing them for the academic and social emotional opportunities that lie ahead as they continue their journey beyond our classroom. As their teacher, I “see” the learner, not only academically, but as a dynamic, perpetually changing and evolving person.

I graduated from Colorado State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication. Since then I have been following a diverse (some would say non-linear) vocational and personal path. I’ve been a professional bicycle racer, a massage therapist (reigniting my interest in anatomy, physiology and kinesiology), a professional photographer, an HTML coder/web page designer, a Professional Research Assistant at the department of Dermatology at the University of Colorado Health Science Center, and a stay at home dad to my now 15 year old daughter. In 2006, I completed the Stanley British Primary Teacher Preparation Program and have been teaching preschool through 8th grade science and other content areas in numerous capacities ever since.

The last eight years have been spent rekindling a passion for all things science. I worked at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science where I created a professional development program for elementary teachers (funded by the Colorado School of Mines) on the neurologic benefits of integrating movement-based learning to improve classroom outcomes.

Most recently, I was a founding member of the Montessori School of Denver middle school program, presented workshops at GESTEM (Girls Exploring Science Technology Engineering and Math), and I was the recipient of the Outstanding Teacher Award at the 2016 Front Range Regional Science Fair.

During the summer I have run botany/ecology-based camps for low income elementary and middle school students at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal wildlife refuge. Outside of the classroom, I enjoy cycling, being a Big Brother mentor, high altitude mountaineering, snowboarding, camping, chess, all things technology, learning to play the guitar and inline skate racing.