MY NAME is David Hornbeck, and I'm in my second semester in the MAT (Secondary) program here at UGA. I'm originally from Jonesboro, Arkansas, and obtained my bachelor's degree in mathematics at the University of Pittsburgh. I'm currently a part of the Teach to Learn program, which has me teaching half-time at Clarke Central High School. I discovered my love of teaching when I interned with Summerbridge Pittsburgh, part of the larger Breakthrough Collaborative, a six-week summer program for high-achieving, underserved students.

I love mathematics and working with kids, but beyond that, I also love many genres of music (my favorite artist is hands down Ben Harper) and have played guitar now for nearly half my life. I also LOVE to read, and have particular affinities for Russian literature (don't ask why, it just happened) [Dostoevsky is my favorite, as well as Maxim Gorky & Vladimir Nabokov), online sports articles, & post-modern literature - especially David Foster Wallace, who is my favorite author. Athens is among my favorite places on the planet, and I plan on staying here and teaching for many years.

As a mathematics teacher, I hope to help students not only understand mathematics so that they can use it later on in life and/or learn invaluable critical thinking skills, but also because math can be fun and beautiful. It has intrinsic value as an art form and is really an arena for creativity, as opposed to the rigid, restricting subject it is often considered to be. Mathematician and teacher Paul Lockhart states thoughts similar to these much better than I ever could here.