Matt Dwillis is just starting at Oakmont. He is a co-teaching specialist, which means that his classes are taught by two teachers, him being one of them.
His philosophy on teaching math is this: “I want you to hate math a little less after you’re done with me,” Dwillis said.
Although he is new to Oakmont, he is by no means new to the teaching scene, with 28 years of teaching under his belt. The last eight years of his career have been teaching math. Despite this, he has taught numerous other subjects in the past, such as pre-algebra, algebra, IM1, IM2, driver’s ed, US history, world history, health, government, and economics.
The path of Matt Dwillis started not too far from Oakmont. He grew up in the Roseville-Citrus Heights area, where he attended Crestmont Elementary. Upon his move to Citrus Heights, he started going to Mariposa Avenue Elementary. Later on, he then moved on to study at Andrew Carnegie Middle School in Citrus Heights and graduated from Bella Vista High School.
“I lived right down the street here for many years of my life,” Dwillis said.
Dwillis’ first career idea was that he wanted to do something that had to do with criminals. He went to UC Irvine and studied criminology.
“I found criminology and everything that encompasses criminal minds and thoughts and why people do what they do, the behaviors that get them thrown into jail, [to be interesting],” Dwillis said. “I wanted to help prevent people from getting thrown into jail.”
His initial thought was that he would be a probation officer. He worked with younger children in the Orange County jail as part of his criminology studies at UC Irvine, which got him thinking that he may want to be a marriage, family, and child counselor. Subsequently, he moved back from Southern California to be closer to his family and took some counseling classes at Sacramento State.
His turn to the teaching scene was sparked by one of his professors at Sac State. His professor told him that he would be an amazing teacher and that he should give it a lot of thought. He did think about it, and after a conversation with his mother, who had been a teacher’s assistant for roughly 15 years, she also agreed that he would make a fabulous teacher.
It made sense to him as well.
“My brother grew up with a learning disability, I was an honors kid and I found school a lot easier than a lot of people,” Dwillis said. “That opened the door to me getting into a teaching program [and] I just changed everything, just flopped it on its head.”
He loved teaching middle school and later moved back to Northern California where he taught at Mira Loma High School for 24 years.
“One of the best things I could ever choose in my life is to become a teacher. I absolutely love teaching. I don’t like the paperwork, but I love the teaching part,” Dwillis said. “Seeing a kid’s eyes go ‘wow I understand this’ is awesome.”
Dwillis has many hobbies and refers to himself as a ‘hobby-holic’. Among them are snowboarding, mountain biking, fishing, skimboarding, camping, surfing, wakeboarding, and playing guitar.
“It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life for my psyche,” Dwillis said, about his guitar playing.
He lives with his wife and stepson. He coaches on his stepson’s little league team. He also has two daughters. One has graduated college and one is still at college. He loves music and listens to all sorts of genres, ranging from reggae, which is his favorite, to country, heavy metal, and many more. He enjoys spending time with his wife.
“We are pretty much gone every single weekend,” Dwillis said.
The two participate in many of his hobbies and are very active people. He considers himself an extremely active and outgoing person.
“I try to not be home any day of the summer,” Dwillis said.
