Jimmy Eat World, Alkaline Trio, Death Cab for Cutie, and Bayside: do these bands sound familiar? To many teenagers, this is a list of talented and enjoyable bands. But what you may not know is that these are the favorite bands of Freedom’s new tenth and eleventh grade English teacher, Mr. Aaron Fitzpatrick. Mr. Fitzpatrick said that he has been in bands since he was 15 years old. He writes and records his own music. He also sings and plays guitar. “I dabble on the harmonica, but I’m not very good,” he said. Other than writing and playing music, Mr. Fitzpatrick said that he enjoys swimming, golfing, cooking, and collecting vinyl records. Mr. Fitzpatrick is originally from DuBois, Pennsylvania which is roughly two hours northeast of Freedom. He said that planned to move to the Pittsburgh area after finishing his schooling at Clarion University to do his first year of teaching. Mr. Fitzpatrick got both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Clarion. He said that he enjoyed the smaller campus because he was able to be much more involved in the school. “I participated a lot,” he said. Mr. Fitzpatrick didn’t decide to be a teacher until the end of his high school career. He said that he chose teaching because of “a couple of really good teachers” who influenced him. He said that his mentor during his student teaching also really made him love teaching. “My favorite part [of teaching] is when a student understands because I’ve explained it well enough,” Mr. Fitzpatrick said. He said that his least favorite part is when a student puts forth little effort to do well in school. Mr. Fitzpatrick said that after talking to some of Freedom’s teachers and administrators, he was certain that he would love teaching here. “I knew it was the school for me,” he said. With Freedom’s recent Spirit Week for homecoming, Mr. Fitzpatrick said that he thinks that the district does a great job with encouraging school spirit. He said that it’s important for students to “get behind your sports.” Mr. Fitzpatrick was captain of his highs school baseball team, so members of Freedom’s team may get to know him sometime in the future. “I wouldn’t mind helping out with the baseball team,” he said. Mr. Fitzpatrick also has some experience on the stage. He said that in the future he would “absolutely” consider helping Mrs. Giammaria with the Theater Arts classes. Junior Kaylin Vickinovac said that she likes Mr. Fitzpatrick’s class so far. “He’s easy to talk to because he’s closer to our age. We can learn, laugh, and have fun all at the same time. He gets our jokes and ‘Jersey Shore’ references, too,” Vickinovac said. Mr. Fitzpatrick said that he loves that there is such a “close feel” to our school and that he is enjoying Freedom very much. “This is a really good team to be a part of,” he said.