Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science teacher Charles Castleman has been working at MHS since 2015 and considers it one of the best places he has ever worked at, he said. Castleman transitioned from teaching regular math to teaching AP Computer Science A (AP CSA) starting in 2019, he added.
Castleman earned a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the University of California (UC) Davis, a law degree from Washington and Lee University Law in Virginia, and his teaching credentials from the University of San Francisco when he decided to become a teacher, he said. Castleman believes that some of his favorite memories came from college, he continued.
“I would make a drive over to Sacramento, about 30 minutes away, to a comic book store there where I was part of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) gaming group that met for six hours from 12 to 6,” Castleman said. “Then I would drive back to UC Davis for a club I was in (…) gaming from 6 to 12 with college friends.”
Castleman would not limit himself to just D&D and also played Role-Player Games (RPG) on the computer, he said.
“We usually played tabletop D&D which is always fun, because I’ve played a lot of computer games and they’re fun, but it definitely doesn’t beat the experience of people sitting around a table telling jokes and being sarcastic,” Castleman said. “To be honest, a six-hour gaming session is really three hours of gaming and three hours of people fooling around.”
After spending more than half the day on Fridays gaming, Castleman would then go out to an all-you-can-eat sushi buffet the following day for roughly $13, he said. Castleman believes that his time in college and high school led to some of his best memories, he added.
“I think I had a fairly similar childhood to what a lot of my students have, although I would say back in the 1990s the high school environment was much less stressful for students than it is now,” Castleman said.
Castleman believes that he was a little lazy in high school, which prevented him from getting into a four-year university directly, he said. He went to San Diego City College for two years and, after receiving good grades and getting tired of living at home, transferred to UC Davis, he added.
“If I had to do it over again, I would have double majored in math and computer science,” Castleman said.
Castleman enjoys hiking with his wife, and hiked at places like Castle Rock bi-weekly before before his child was born, he said.
“However once he (my 2-year old son) starts turning old enough to be able to hike with us, then it’ll be back to hiking all the time,” Castleman said.
Like hiking, Castleman’s gaming interests have been put on the back burner so he can spend time with his child in his free time, he said.
“The first thing I do when I get home is what I call seventh period,” Castleman said. “I do (general) lessons with him, which my wife helps prepare with me and so I can teach him different things.”
Castleman is a big believer in having a balanced education and makes sure his son stays active, he said. For example, Castleman is currently teaching his son how to ride a bike in the evenings when the weather is good, he added.
“I showed some of my Math 1 students (…) how to draw MHS with some programming tools on Khan Academy, and that’s what I showed (former Principal Francis Rojas),” Castleman said.
After learning that Castleman was using programming tools to help teach his students about math, Rojas asked if he was interested in teaching AP CSA since there hadn’t been a teacher for that class at MHS for over a decade, Castleman said. After completing the required training for the class and brushing up on his fundamentals of Java, a programming language that AP CSA is based on, Castleman began teaching his first two classes in the 2019-20 school year, he added. AP CSA’s popularity has steadily grown since then and he currently teaches five sections of the class, he continued.
“I thought he (Castleman) was almost as big of a geek as I am,” physics teacher Charles Schletzbaum said.
Schletzbaum realized early on from the short conversations they had during passing periods that they held similar interests over certain games and that Castleman understood obscure tidbits of information, he said.
“He’s really passionate about CS (Computer Science) and he really cares and makes sure that all the students understand what’s going on,” AP CSA student Ved Vyas said.
Vyas believes that he can approach Castleman and talk about random topics besides CS, from other subjects to general life tips, he said.
“I feel like, at the end of the day, leading a balanced life, getting enough sleep, being able to have time to cool off, and things like that are very important,” Castleman said.
Castleman ventures into worlds of math, law, computer science
