Mr. Kadvan has been teaching for a total of 14 years. He taught one year in Pennsylvania and 13 years at United Local. He graduated from Struthers High School which is in the Youngstown area and went to Westminster College in Pennsylvania.
He thinks it is exciting to see the progression of the new school building and he thinks there will be a lot of new opportunities for teaching and learning in the new building. He says the building project has brought a lot of excitement for the teachers and the students and he is looking forward to see what stems from the excitement.
He uses different teaching techniques every year so if you were in his class a couple years ago you would notice he is teaching differently this year. He changes his techniques because every year new students come with different strengths and weaknesses. He teaches what his students need, however, he still has the same expectations.
The easiest part of being a teacher is sharing his passion with his students. He said that he hopes the students he taught still enjoy the things they learned back when they were in his class. He likes to teach using food. For example, if he is eating a donut then he has to teach fractions while eating the donut.
The best part of being a teacher is getting to know his students and seeing them grow. When he coached basketball he kept in contact with some of the basketball players he coached. He attends graduation parties of past students and likes to see how they grow from third grade to graduation.
The hardest part of being a teacher is the unknown. Teachers can not prepare for the unknown and they just want to help their students.
When he was a freshman in college he lived across the hall from a United graduate, Mr. Wrask. He told Mr.Kadvan about United and when Mr. Kadvan was looking for a job he applied at United and the rest is history. He enjoys being part of the community and he enjoys being part of the United district. There are a lot of good families and good kids in the community and he enjoys everything about United.
Mr. Kadvan wanted to be a teacher because he saw the impact teachers can have on kids. He thought his eighth grade teacher was really good at math and he wanted to be an accountant. She was trying to show him different opportunities that an accountant could do with sports and business. So he thought to himself, “Wow she is really helping me, that's something I can do and have an impact on students.” So he knew he could make a difference.
After school he likes to play with his two kids Claire and Elliot and hang out with his family. If the weather is nice he likes to golf.