Meet Mr. Rubino, a passionate second year teacher in the history department of Flushing High School where he teaches US History, AP US History and Participation in Government.
He found motivation from his own APUSH teacher who constantly challenged and motivated him to be a better historian. “Because of the impact he left on me, I wanted to leave a similar impact on others,” he reflects.
Mr. Rubino always had a love for History and English in college. “It was then I realized that turning my passion for history into an educational career is where I can leave meaningful impacts on students,” he expresses. His student can see this in his classes when he reinforces the theme of interconnectedness between certain events and processes across history, helping students see history as a series of perspectives rather than a “fixed-fact” teaching style.
Sometimes, people can just tell when someone is passionate about what they do. Mr. Rubino goes on to say, “I want students to build toward a better future for themselves, and for others, by acknowledging the perspectives of the past to inform their own perspective of what is to come.” Rubino tries to give short narratives of multiple perspectives on historical events to emphasize his ideas that “there is nothing correct or incorrect about history. It’s just a matter of perspective.”
In the classroom, he tries to utilize various strategies to foster critical thinking and challenges his students to ask, “Why/How does this topic matter?” A memorable teaching moment Rubino shares from his career so far was a debate on the Atomic Bomb that he held in all his APUSH classes. “With the movie Oppenheimer still fresh in everybody’s minds, we were able to fiercely argue for and against the use of atomic weaponry during World War II. Using primary sources along with their outside knowledge, students were very invested in this activity and it reminded me of when I was in their shoes, debating the exact same thing in my APUSH class. I cannot wait to do it again later this year”, he stated.
Flushing High School is lucky to have Mr. Rubino’s dedication to presenting history and for creating a positive impact upon the school community.