Matt Reynolds cultivates his curiosity for the world, and feels the duty of any teacher is to guide his students to do the same. Through inquiry and discovery in history, he guides his students to create new perspectives on the present. Matt uses thematic units and cross-curricular studies to help students see the relevance of historical issues throughout all disciplines.
Matt brings resonant “real world” experience to the classroom, and uses current technology to engage students in active learning. He graduated with a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Arkansas and holds a NC professional teacher’s license in Social Studies from UNCA.
In 2006, he was hired as a documentary filmmaker and anthropologist for the education department of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. Matt has taught English to Haitian children via Skype, worked with special needs children in after school enrichment programs, taught documentary film making during Upward Bound’s summer program, and volunteered for a year with AmeriCorps in high needs schools in the Asheville area. In addition, he was a full-time history teacher at Odyssey Community School and was a part-time teacher at the School of Inquiry and Life Sciences at Asheville (SILSA). He has worked with a diverse group of young people and finds inspiration and hope in this work.
When Matt isn’t teaching, he is outdoors raft guiding on two different rivers in the south east, planning his next adventure with his wife and young son to some distant land. An avid whitewater kayaker, scrappy mountain biker, and a fun-loving musician, Matt and his family are happy to be a part of the Franklin School of Innovation and contributing to the success of the community.