Teacher Feature: Mr. Jesse Oxman

Mr. Jesse Oxman is a teacher here at Crofton High School who works in the science department. He teaches a range of classes including physics and environmental science. He also organizes and meets with the fishing club on a weekly basis. 

Mr. Oxman attended high school at Baltimore Polytechnic High School in Baltimore City Maryland and from there, attended Towson University where he majored in Applied Physics and Physics Secondary Education. Prior to the opening of Crofton High School, Mr. Oxman worked and taught Physics at Arundel High School for 7 years and spent 2 other years teaching Physics at Winter’s Mill High School which is located in Carroll County. At all of the schools he has taught at, he has primarily taught at the high school level and has mostly worked with junior and senior classes. This is also his 10th year of teaching. 

Mr. Oxman was asked when he figured out he wanted to teach, and his answer was “The social aspect of teaching was more appealing than spending my days in front of a computer at an engineering firm.” When attending college, his intention was to study engineering before the university approached him about education and the NOYCE Scholars program offered at Towson University. Mr. Oxman believes that Physics is interesting to study and learn. He goes on to say that “It explains how everything in the universe works from the smallest of elementary particles to the largest of celestial objects. Despite the vast spectrum of content and information, physics at its core is a way of thinking.” 

Mr. Oxman is a part of QuarkNet at John Hopkins University which is a program designed for teachers to develop their knowledge and skills in contemporary/particle physics and ways to bring it into the classroom. Through this program, Mr. Oxaman obtained Cosmic Ray Muon Detectors which his students then have used to complete meaningful scientific research which have been presented at the science fair expo. 

Freshman Kilo Roberts, who is one of his environmental science students, said that “Mr. Oxman is nice and organized in the classroom setting, but gives lots of work and not enough time to do it.” Roberts also brought up the biodiversity unit which Mr. Oxman had taught and also mentioned that it was their favorite lesson and was “easy and interesting to understand.” 

Junior Sid West, a student in one of his physics classes, said that “He has a good spirit when it comes to teaching and teaches in a positive way,” but also added that “He assigns too much work.” When asked about their favorite lesson taught by Mr. Oxman, Sid’s answer was “Energy.” 

When asked to respond to his students claiming that the workload in his class room is a lot, Mr. Oxman responds with “While I personally enjoy physics, I realize there is a stigma associated with its difficult nature. Often at schools, there are only enough sections to justify a single physics teacher.” He then goes on to say that in Anne Arundel County, there are 5 different types of physics offered such as Standard Physics, Honors Physics, algebra-based AP Physics 1, algebra- based AP Physics 2, and calculus-based AP Physics. “This often leaves me with anywhere from three to five preps, which can be draining. I also have two young children at home, a three and six year old, which keep me busy.” says Mr. Jesse Oxman to close the interview.