Flushing High School is excited to welcome and introduce Mr. Rubino, a passionate second year teacher in the history department of our school where he teaches US history, AP US history and participation in government. For most of his life, he grew up in Long Island.
Mr. Rubino found motivation by his 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. He always had a love for history and English as he pursued it 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. Rubino emphasizes to reinforce the themes of interconnectedness between certain events and processes across history, helping students see history as a series of perspectives rather than fixed fact teaching style.
He expresses a meaningful point of view, “ 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 think, “why/how does this topic matter?” A memorable teaching moment Rubino shares from his career so far was the Atomic Bomb debate from last year with 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 but also 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.
To conclude, Mr. Rubino’s dedication to presenting history amongst students creates a positive impact upon the school community.