Meeting new faculty members is one of the most anticipated events at the beginning of every school year. This year, James Booth is joining the Concord Academy community as a biology teacher in the science department. Booth is originally from east of Montreal, Canada, and he is currently living with his family in Belmont, Massachusetts. Booth has been a research scientist for 20 years, and his main field of study is cell biology. After he decided to dedicate himself to teaching, Booth started his career at the Waldorf High School of Massachusetts Bay in Belmont, MA, where he taught biology and life science. He has also taught immunology at The University of Toronto.
Booth decided to come to CA because of the community, and he is impressed by the student body’s activeness and their love of learning, which always makes teaching fun in his opinion.
“I’ve just been here teaching a week or so and meeting with other teachers and staff over the past couple of months but have been super welcoming,” explained Booth. “It is indeed a wonderful community for individuals.”
When asked about his teaching experience after the first week of school, Booth thought teaching freshman biology was a perfect way to begin his CA career, “The freshmen are new, I’m new, and we all are in the same place.”
Despite the difficulties of distance learning, especially in respect to lab experiments, Booth is not discouraged. “It is, in fact, a great opportunity if we have everybody doing their experiment in different places and put our heads together later to talk about what everybody saw. It’s the way science is actually done where people from all over the world put their observations together.”
Aside from biology, Booth enjoys outdoor activities such as running, biking, and canoeing. He thinks that Concord -and New England in general- is a wonderful place for outside activities. Additionally, Booth is an environmentalist who focuses on climate-change-related initiatives in the town he lives in and the state, specifically seeking ways to reduce greenhouse gases. Booth claims that spending time outside enables him to be insightful about the changes in our environment, such as increased outdoor temperature.
Overall Booth is excited to join the CA community and looks forward to the upcoming year!