Mr. Katykhin, our returning Shark, teaches both Integrated Math 1 and Pre-Calculus. He came to America from Russia with his family, got an American education, and now thrives in the area of mathematics. Katykhin enjoys the outdoors just as much as he loves teaching math.

What made you want to teach high school math?

“I think one of the reasons why is because I’d rather teach higher level math, which is what I enjoy more. It’s a challenging math, rather than going through the steps that are very simple. In seventh grade math it’s pretty much just multiplying and dividing. Since I’m getting my masters, it’s nice to be involved with math that is actually a little bit more challenging. That’s probably one of the reasons why I prefer high school versus lower mathematics.”

Where did you teach before coming to Santiago?

“Well considering that I started teaching my first year at Santiago, I’m just travelling around. After Santiago, I was teaching two years at Centennial. I taught and coached wrestling there. I got transferred to River Heights, but then I got transferred to Corona Fundamental Intermediate School. Now I got transferred back to Santiago. I’ve taken a trip around the district.”

What do you do after school? Do you have any hobbies?

“I have a lot of hobbies. One of my biggest hobbies is, like I said, I like to be out and about. One of the recent things we (my wife and I) did is we got into paddle-boarding. I am a huge crazy fan of snowboarding. Whenever I get the chance, I go wake-boarding, and camping. I think this summer we went eight times, so I enjoy the outdoors.”

If you could do anything else, what would you do and why?

“If I could make money travelling the world, I would probably do that. As big of a fan I am of math, I’m also a big fan of history, so for me to travel and get to know all the different cultures and make money out of it, I probably would do that.”

So we hear you have a Russian accent, when did you move here?

“I moved here when I was twelve years old. Half the year, I went to sixth grade, which used to be El Cerrito, which is now a junior high. We came in August, and I think I went to school after the New Year and I didn’t know a single word of English. It was something brand new, it was a brand new country, I had to learn from the beginning. I think we knew one sentence, which was “how are you?” That was the only thing we knew.”

Do you miss anything from Russia?

“People ask me that question a lot, and the answer to that is actually very simple. I got to live, as I consider, in the two best worlds you can possibly live in. I grew up there, so we did a lot of stuff that was outdoorsy. My family towards the end were bee farmers so we did a lot of traveling, we did a lot of fun stuff. We would work but we also had a lot of fun. We were always by the rivers and the mountains. We were always out there doing things. Then we came over here, it was just enough time for me to grasp the language and get an education. I had the best of both worlds; I got to enjoy the beauty out there, and I got to get an education out here. Truly, I don’t miss anything, and I don’t think I missed out on anything.”

Do you remember any phrases in Russian?

“You do realize that I am fluent in both languages? I mean I know all the phrases you can think of. My wife and I, with my parents, speak Russian. But I’ll tell you this, “Privet”, that means hello”

Are you still in contact with anyone in Russia?

“Just family members, none of my school mates or anything, just family members that are still out there.”