Josh Kuo

During his first few years at MVHS, AP Statistics teacher Josh Kuo was surprised by the lack of golf carts — in his previous district, there were staff members who patrolled the campus looking for students who weren’t attending class. Kuo notes that he has hardly seen students at MVHS ditching class and finds they are more motivated. 

 

Kuo’s career journey began in high school, when he tutored math to struggling students. Kuo continued to tutor throughout college at a local tutoring center, HS2 Academy, and received his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics at UC Davis. After receiving positive feedback from his tutees, he obtained his secondary Education and Teaching degree from San Jose State University. 

 

Kuo spent four years at Live Oak High School before teaching for three years at MVHS. He then spent the 2020-2021 school year at Lynbrook High School before returning to MVHS for his ninth year as a teacher this year. After spending a year at LHS, Kuo mentions that the transition was quite smooth, because the student demographics were very similar. During his time as a teacher, Kuo believes the most important thing he learned was how to build relationships with both students and staff. 

 

“It's about growing together,” Kuo said. “It's not a lot about teaching the methods — it's about teaching the thinking. The dynamic [and] the atmosphere in the classroom is what keeps me in this industry. People ask me if I love math, [and] I [say], ‘I don't love math. Math is just a tool for me.’ And they're like, ‘Well, why do you teach math?’ It's because I love the teaching experience.”

 

Kuo also participates in a number of activities outside of school such as playing basketball and men's slow pitch softball, listening to music and watching YouTube. He hopes that after a tough two years due to COVID, things will return back to normal and run smoothly.

 

“I just hope everyone's having a good time and hopefully everyone gets to achieve [the] goals that they set,” Kuo said. “We have a lot of things that people take for granted, but we are very lucky to have all the resources around this community. We have high standards on many things, which should not be taken [for] granted, [and] I would say we are very lucky to have all this student body, staff [and] administration.”