New Teacher, New Club On The Rise!

This school year, Casady has brought in two new teachers to the math department. One of them, Mr. Ware, has brought something somewhat new to the table as well - Weather Club! Mr. Ware was employed here at Casady when he was 25 as his first teaching job back in 2006. He commented that “there was a learning curve” to first-time teaching, but by his third year, he became fairly consistent. However, this was not his initial career plan.Mr. Ware’s first degree was in meteorology. He attended Oklahoma University as an undergrad and Cornell for grad school. He never desired to go into the entertainment business. He was more interested in research where he could work in the math and sciences and execute the job best. Briefly, he worked at the National Severe Storm Lab. My first instinct was to question if any wild events took place there. He laughed and answered, “that place was boring, there wasn’t any crazy stuff that happened there [because] what I did was all on computer - so like working on computer programming.” However, Mr. Ware did take part in an exciting research project on lightning while in college. His class released balloon rods into storms that contained a large amount of lightening and as they flew into the air the rods would spiral. Mr. Ware had a friend at Oklahoma University who also enjoyed observing Mother Nature’s extremes. In 1999, there happened to be a storm heading towards Texas and his friend was geared up and ready to chase it. Mr. Ware agreed to accompany him. Unfortunately, it was a bust. The tornado formed at night and he never laid eyes on it. There was no wifi available to track the storm at that time, they only had radio and some additional measuring instruments propped up on the outside of their car. If you wanted internet you would have to plug into a gas station, so Mr. Ware and his adventurous friend had no way of confidently following the storm. When I asked if he would ever take on one of our own Oklahoman tornadoes he responded, “if it comes to me, I’ll get out of its way!” No shame in that. As he well knows from growing up here, they can be deadly. One semester at Cornell, Mr. Ware taught a class in meteorology. This is where he found his passion to teach. “My mom is also a teacher, so i’ve always kind of had a teaching bug [in me],” he admitted. After completing his meteorology degree from Cornell, Mr. Ware returned to Oklahoma University to obtain a Mathematical degree in education. He was initially looking to teach at the collegiate level. Casady’s notice, sent to the Math department at OU looking for teachers, changed his course. Mr. Ware thought, “it was worth the try, so [he] interviewed and got the job.” His first time at Casady, he formed the original Weather Club with interested students. “We really enjoyed it. We did weekly chapel weather forecasts and a first freeze contest. Everybody would come in and pick a day that they thought was going to be the first freeze. The group would also go to the weather center every other year. That was always fun!” Another one of Mr. Ware’s many passions is music. He plays piano, participated in the Cry: the marching band at OU, and still sings in a choir at Grace Methodist Church - where he met his wife. “It was quite the scandal!” Mr. Ware confessed. Pastors were not permitted to date there, but his wife was an associate and had to ask for permission to date him.

Mr. Ware’s career at Casady took a pause when he married his wife and moved to Weatherford, Oklahoma, teaching at several other schools. The reason he came back was because he loved it here so much the first time. Predominately, what he likes most about Casady is the “caliber of students [who] actually like to learn, want to learn, and aspire to get [into] a good college - that’s enjoyable for a teacher.” Currently, Mr. Ware is planning on gathering a group of students who have the same interest in meteorology to bring back the Weather Club.