This month, Academic Magnet announced that their 2024 Teacher of the Year is Mr. Andrew Rusciolelli, or as his students call him, Mr. Rush.

Mr. Rush is certainly a fan-favorite teacher at Academic Magnet.  I had the pleasure of sitting down with Mr. Rush and getting to know more about him.

Mr. Rush grew up in Northern Virginia, about thirty miles outside Washington, D.C.  Coming from a family of six boys, he has always valued the interplay between individuality and community.  Growing up, for him, was about being his own person, but knowing that he was a part of something bigger, a philosophy he took with him into the classroom.

Teaching is actually a second career for Mr. Rush—he earned his undergraduate degree in economics, which initially led him to banking.  However, as his passion for teaching grew, he pursued a Master of Arts in Teaching and a certificate in secondary education administration.  Now, Mr. Rush has been in the teaching profession for twenty-four years, teaching at North Charleston High School, St. John’s High School, and serving as an administrator at R.B. Stall High School.  Yet, he has spent the most time here at Academic Magnet, where he has taught primarily AP United States History and AP Psychology for over a decade.

In the classroom, Mr. Rush keeps his teaching style as straightforward as possible, emphasizing accountability for both himself and his students.  He encourages his students to combine their academic lives with extracurricular pursuits like physical activity, music, or other artistic endeavors in order to provide a well-rounded education.  Mr. Rush believes in setting challenging yet realistic expectations and aims to create a conversational classroom that incorporates actual learning material with humor and real-life examples.

When Mr. Rush first joined the Magnet faculty, he was asked to teach Global I to ninth-grade students, the class that eventually became Human Geography.  The next year, he taught exclusively AP United States History.  Our country’s history has always interested Mr. Rush, so it was a natural fit for him.  Similarly, AP Psychology developed out of conversations with Mr. Stackhouse and Mr. Hoffman, inheriting the class when the latter retired in 2017.

Outside the classroom, Mr. Rush enjoys coaching AMHS baseball and football.  The difference between teaching and coaching, he says, lies in introducing new ideas and concepts to his students versus developing the existing skills of his players.  Both involve overcoming obstacles and promoting individual development for the success of the team or class as a whole.  Although balancing the roles of teacher and coach is challenging, Mr. Rush is grateful for the enormous support of his family and colleagues.

Looking ahead, Mr. Rush foresees the implementation of more digital technology in schools, such as in computer-based testing and online classroom demonstrations.  Mr. Rush also believes in pushing back the early start times of high schools to better accommodate the needs of the teenage brain.

Overall, Mr. Rush says that knowing who he is as a person and aligning that with his identity as a teacher has been crucial in having a seamless twenty-four years in education.  We look forward to his continued success and dedication to education at Academic Magnet and beyond.