Mr. Andrew Byram joined Westwood this year as a math teacher. Previously, Mr. Byram taught at Lockhart High School. For Mr. Byram, the effort students put into their studies was a pleasant surprise.

“I feel like Westwood has students way above average as far as testing and academics,” Mr. Byram said. “Everyone here has incredible motivation to perform well, to learn. The motivation here is something else.”

Before he became a teacher, Mr. Byram was a mechanic in the Air Force. His experiences in the Air Force built his work ethic and kickstarted his path through the STEM field.

“It was hard at first, but after the first year it gets a lot more relaxed. I worked on the B1B aircrafts there as an electronic corp air specialist, so basically an airplane mechanic specializing in things like radar,” Mr. Byram said. “I worked 12-hour shifts, seven days a week. You just have to get used to working all the time.”

After leaving the Air Force, he enrolled in Austin Community College to get an associate’s degree. At ACC, he began to enjoy math.

“Austin Community College is when I started basic math classes. I started elementary algebra there and I took every single math class they offered,” Mr. Byram said. “You name it, I took it.”

Though Mr. Bryam did not initially particularly enjoy math, he grew to love it. However, as the problems became more and more difficult, math could be frustrating at times.

“At first, I started learning math because I wanted to make money. I thought mathematics would be the key to making a lot of money in the world,” Mr. Byram said. “After getting to about Calculus, I did enough mathematics where I had this love-hate relationship with it. It stressed me out, but because I got stressed it felt even better to be able to solve a really hard problem.”

Austin Community College was also the place where he began his journey towards becoming a teacher after he graduated.

“I finished my associate’s degree and I had some time where I couldn’t just hop straight into college, I had to work and provide for myself,” Mr. Byram said. “While I was waiting to see which college I would be accepted into, I decided to tutor. I realized I enjoyed watching people have that click in their minds, saying ‘Hey! I understand this now!’ So I pursued teaching at Texas State after I left ACC.”

Apart from teaching, he loves to relax in the outdoors and go tubing in his spare time.

“I like volleyball, swimming, just being outdoors hiking, and floating on the San Marcos River. I still drive down there, every weekend when it’s warm, I go to San Marcos,” Mr. Byram said.

This year, he is thrilled with the prospect of spending the entire school year with a class of students.

“This is still my first year, because even though I taught at Lockhart, I taught starting in January so this year I’m just trying to get everything in order and organized,” Mr. Byram said. “I’m excited just to teach a class all the way from the beginning of the school year to the end.”