Cordelia Portman

Nathaniel Owen helps freshman Marley Garcia with her math practice in his Algebra I class on Aug. 28. Owen began teaching at MSHS this school year and is excited to embrace the Manitou culture.

As the 2024-2025 school year begins a new chapter opens for the MSHS math department. Nathanial Owen began teaching at MSHS on Aug. 16 because it was closer to home than his previous job at Woodland Park High School. This is Owen’s 14th year teaching, and he is excited to join MSHS as a math and AP Physics teacher.

Tiffany Selz, a math teacher at MSHS, is excited to meet a new teacher and learn from him. “I think he brings a new unique perspective, which could lead to some interesting discussions, and impact how we handle the math world here at Manitou,” Selz said.

Selz provided advice as to what students could do to help Owen settle in. “Manitou is great because students are awesome at saying ‘hi’ in the hallway and knowing the teachers,” Selz said. “Even though you might not have him as a teacher, or you might not know him yet, make sure that you introduce yourself and encourage him to feel like he is a part of the school as well.”  

Selz feels that the math department, and specifically the geometry teachers, must cooperate to orient the classes properly. “As a department, we like to be on the same page about how our grades are set up and what tests we give,” Selz said. “Because Mr.Owen teaches geometry, he and I will work closely together to make sure that our assessments are the same and the two groups are aligned closely.”

Beckett Wendell-Evans (11) is taking Owen’s AP Physics class this year.

Wendell-Evans feels that to help his students succeed, Owen encourages students to work together. “He gets us thinking independently while working with our peers to solve problems that none of us would have known how to solve prior to working together,” Wendell-Evans said.

Wendell-Evans believes that Owen is good at helping students individually as well as very encouraging. “He encourages you individually to succeed by giving you problems you don’t know how to solve and simply having you work them out,” Wendell-Evans said, “increasing your ability to work with yourself and giving you more confidence in your ability to problem solve.”

Owen is excited to embrace the uniqueness of Manitou. “I’m really excited about the culture here at Manitou, and a lot of really great things are happening,” Owen said. “The students are really supportive of each other, there’s lots of kindness going around and there’s also room for growth.  I’m hoping to help the students grow.”

Owen has developed a strategy for helping students through a lot of trial and error and has developed his sense of being a teacher. “I know what has gotten students to be successful in the past, what gets the students engaged in learning, and what actually is the most impactful,” Owen said. “I’ve developed slightly differently than many other math teachers.” 

Owen understands that math may not be a student’s favorite subject, but he wants to help students succeed in math regardless. “My goal and my hope is that they won’t hate it anymore, because I think that everybody has an innate sense of math,” he said, “and sometimes it just hasn’t been developed yet.”

Owen feels that developing a plan after college was a difficult choice. “I graduated with my undergraduate degree in math and music. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do after college,” Owen said. “I sat down and made a list of pros and cons, of things that I was good at and things I wasn’t good at and what I was passionate about.” 

Owen found his passion for teaching through encouraging others. “I realized one of the things that I was really good at was helping others be successful. I was always the student in class that helped my peers score better than me on the tests,” Owen said. “I always love seeing other people be successful.”