Mr. Pham stood at the front of the classroom and explained how to factor out polynomials. One student raised his hand with a question, and Mr. Pham happily walked down the aisle, smiled, and asked, “How may I help you?”

In his twentieth year as a teacher, Mr. Pham has decided to leave the classroom and become a private tutor for math. He will also begin working on a memoir.

“My memoir will be about important events in my life: my daring escape from Vietnam and my translation of the Bible into Vietnamese for the common reader,” Mr. Pham said. “It took 17 years to finish the task and now is the best-selling Bible in Vietnam!”

Before Kimmons, Mr. Pham taught high school Math at Union Christian Academy and Hartford. He also taught at Texas Christian University.

“I was first inspired to become a teacher when I recognized that I was able to make hard things easy for students to understand,” Mr. Pham said. “This is the key in teaching Math.”

As Mr. Pham’s inclusion co-teacher, Mrs. Courtney saw Mr. Pham’s abilities first hand.

“Mr. Pham is very knowledgeable in his subject area and knows a lot of shortcuts that make math concepts easier,” Mrs. Courtney said.

Fellow freshmen Algebra teacher, Mrs. Weaver, also acknowledged Mr. Pham’s attributes as an educator.

“Mr. Pham is dedicated to the subject of Algebra,” Mrs. Weaver said. “He looks for ways to teach his students simple, easy to understand approaches to solving complicated problems.”

Moving from college and high school down to junior high has had its challenges.

“The biggest challenge as a teacher has been when students refuse to even try to understand math and show no real effort to learn,” Mr. Pham said.

The staff and students are sad for Mr. Pham’s departure.

“I will miss seeing Mr. Pham in the halls at Kimmons next year because he is always friendly and happy to talk to his colleagues about his teaching strategies for different concepts,” Mrs. Weaver said.

Mrs. Weaver is not the only teacher who appreciated Mr. Pham’s friendliness.

“I will miss Mr. Pham’s kind, gentle spirit,” Mrs. Courtney said. “Every day he gives his students quotes that teaches them how to be a better person.”

In his brief time at Kimmons, Mr. Pham made a positive impact.

“I will miss his dedication to his work and how he always took things seriously,” Eric Berto said. “Whether it was giving us Cokes to motivate us or letting us watch a movie if we all scored 80% or above, Mr. Pham cared.”

Jacob Guzman enjoyed having Mr. Pham for Algebra.

“Mr. Pham is funny and cool,” Jacob said. “I will miss his good teaching and sodas.”

Mr. Pham has some things he will miss about KJH.

“I will miss how some of my students have a desire to learn more outside the classroom,” Mr. Pham said. “I have also had many very helpful staff members during my two years here.”