Nicholas J. Rinaldi
Nick Rinaldi was born and lived in New Haven until he was eight and his family moved to East Haven. Nick attended public schools and in 1963, graduated from East Haven H.S. where he was awarded a four year scholarship to Southern Connecticut State University by the East Haven Education Association. He earned a BS in education from SCSU in 1967, a Masters from Wesleyan in 1972 and a sixth year certificate in Supervision and Administration from SCSU in 1988. Today Nick, his wife Barbara and daughter Alicia live in Guilford.
Nick worked his magic as a math teacher at Branford H.S. for forty-one years from 1967 until 2008. Dr. Edmund Higgins said at Nick's retirement that, "Students helping students learn, students working together to work out solutions to ill-defined problems and students sharing alternate solutions to the same problem. That is what one experiences in Nick Rinaldi's magical classroom."
He served as student council advisor, class advisor and for the last twenty-eight years that he taught at BHS he was also math department chairman. As department chair, Nick was instrumental in implementing many programs to improve the quality of math education. He conceived and wrote a computer assisted program for students who did not pass the ninth grade proficiency exam. He organized and implemented procedures to help students improve their PSAT, SAT and CAPT scores. Nick conducted workshops and demonstrated strategies for teachers to help them integrate the concept of cooperative learning, differentiated instruction, use of technology and reading and writing in the math classroom. In addition, he was instrumental in developing the Honors Geometry program, school wide learner outcomes, and problem solving and communication learner outcomes for the mathematics department.
Nick made mathematics come alive through school-wide programs such as the computer program "Hot Dog Stand" which got all levels of students competing against each other and at the same time learning about operating a business. He even got 75-100 students per year to participate in the American Mathematics Competitions where he served as the School Manager. Nick's students will always remember his magic tricks and the magic shows he would put on at holiday time. He served on numerous committees including the District Curriculum Council, Chairman of the District Mathematics Curriculum Committee, District Leadership Team, BHS Academic Standards Committee and Principals' Advisory Council. For the past five years Nick has been an adjunct professor at the University of New Haven where he teaches a course for graduate students, Math Strategies for Secondary Education. He also teaches an undergraduate course, Intermediate Algebra. Nick retired from BHS in 2008 but he has been busy writing a soon to be published book called The Math Teachers Tool Box, which offers advice and techniques to aid educators in classroom management. Nick has spent his professional career taking a subject that many fear and through his unique style of teaching and passion for the subject, turned math into a subject that Branford High students not only became proficient in but have come to enjoy. Branford is most fortunate that Nick choose to dedicate his professional life teaching Branford students.
Nick worked his magic as a math teacher at Branford H.S. for forty-one years from 1967 until 2008. Dr. Edmund Higgins said at Nick's retirement that, "Students helping students learn, students working together to work out solutions to ill-defined problems and students sharing alternate solutions to the same problem. That is what one experiences in Nick Rinaldi's magical classroom."
He served as student council advisor, class advisor and for the last twenty-eight years that he taught at BHS he was also math department chairman. As department chair, Nick was instrumental in implementing many programs to improve the quality of math education. He conceived and wrote a computer assisted program for students who did not pass the ninth grade proficiency exam. He organized and implemented procedures to help students improve their PSAT, SAT and CAPT scores. Nick conducted workshops and demonstrated strategies for teachers to help them integrate the concept of cooperative learning, differentiated instruction, use of technology and reading and writing in the math classroom. In addition, he was instrumental in developing the Honors Geometry program, school wide learner outcomes, and problem solving and communication learner outcomes for the mathematics department.
Nick made mathematics come alive through school-wide programs such as the computer program "Hot Dog Stand" which got all levels of students competing against each other and at the same time learning about operating a business. He even got 75-100 students per year to participate in the American Mathematics Competitions where he served as the School Manager. Nick's students will always remember his magic tricks and the magic shows he would put on at holiday time. He served on numerous committees including the District Curriculum Council, Chairman of the District Mathematics Curriculum Committee, District Leadership Team, BHS Academic Standards Committee and Principals' Advisory Council. For the past five years Nick has been an adjunct professor at the University of New Haven where he teaches a course for graduate students, Math Strategies for Secondary Education. He also teaches an undergraduate course, Intermediate Algebra. Nick retired from BHS in 2008 but he has been busy writing a soon to be published book called The Math Teachers Tool Box, which offers advice and techniques to aid educators in classroom management. Nick has spent his professional career taking a subject that many fear and through his unique style of teaching and passion for the subject, turned math into a subject that Branford High students not only became proficient in but have come to enjoy. Branford is most fortunate that Nick choose to dedicate his professional life teaching Branford students.