Joe Mraz is valued as a great biology and anatomy and physiology teacher. He happens to be married to the agriculture teacher, Jessie Mraz. Joe Mraz is a huge “Star Wars” fan and owns an impressive Storm Trooper costume that he can be seen wearing on most Halloweens or on May fourth.
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Southerner: What do you like to do in your free time?
Mraz: “I hangout with my kids. I also like to play games, and I got friends I like to hangout with.”
Southerner: What was your journey through college like?
Mraz: “I went to Purdue University. I studied biology education. I enjoyed my time there. I was learning and thought I had a good group of friends. I was kind of away from home, which was nice, but my parents still lived in West Lafayette; I just didn’t live with them. So, I had this nice, I could go home if I needed to or they could come to me if they really needed to [scenario]. I really kind of just did my own thing, and it was nice.”
Southerner: What is it like working with your spouse?
Mraz: “I like it actually. We’re on opposite sides of the building, so we kind of have this distance. We’re not in each other’s business all day, but it’s kind of nice I can walk down for anything I need. She calls me up through the phone here, just because it’s on the other side of the building. We can carpool, which is kind of nice. We get to talk in the car now instead of driving separately or listening to music separately. I like it.”
Southerner: What’s your favorite movie?
Mraz: “Well, there’s several ones in the running here. When I was a kid, my favorite was the ‘Empire Strikes Back’ from ‘Star Wars.’ As I got older, when the ‘Lord of the Rings’ came out, that kind of replaced it as my favorite movies I like to watch. I probably quote ‘Spaceballs’ the most, so I’ll just go with that one.”
Southerner: Would you rather shrink in height by a millimeter every time you eat candy or never get another Christmas gift again?
Mraz: “I think I’d go with never getting a Christmas gift. Now that I’m an adult, I can just buy stuff with my own money.”
Southerner: What does the average day look like for a teacher?
Mraz: “Well, I can’t speak for all teachers, but for myself, I try to get here an hour before school starts. Since I became a parent, it’s become more 45 minutes to half an hour early. But, you start to get ready for the day. Normally, I know everything I’m going to do; I already have it planned out. Most days then, for me, kind of depends. On lab days, I have to set up the lab so it’s pretty busy. Then, on work days, I am less busy. I’ll be grading papers, making sure kids are on task or answering questions. And, then sometimes, I have things I need to give them like a worksheet at the beginning of class, or I have something to talk about. My prep-period is often spent grading or planning what I’m going to do the next day.”
Southerner: Are you more of a cat or dog person?
Mraz: “Dog. I don’t hate cats, but they’re too unpredictable. So my wife, when I met her, had a dog named Lucky, a yellow lab. We still have her, getting a little older, but still a good dog. I had dogs growing up, too: a chocolate lab, a papillon and my parents had another dog named Buddy for a long time.”
Southerner: Would you rather eat a ghost pepper or drink an entire bottle of mustard?
Mraz: “I mean, I don’t want to do either of those, but I might just go for the ghost pepper. I think I’d try, going into it, just eating the ghost pepper as fast as possible and then suffer for a little bit. Drinking a whole bottle of mustard sounds like it’d get its revenge on you later.”
Southerner: What’s your favorite dessert?
Mraz: “I’ve always liked brownies. I feel like some people make more like cake brownies and that’s not really what I mean. When I think of brownies, I mean flatter. Some people put powdered sugar on top of them, but they got this more crinkled surface. They definitely are not dry. Thick, but moist.”
Southerner: Has science always been your favorite subject?
Mraz: “Ya’, I think so. I’ve always kind of liked learning things in the world, and it’s kind of where my curiosity leads itself. I also had a biology teacher that I thought was pretty awesome in school, so it probably influenced me to get more into science, more specifically biology. I also just like that science is a subject where there’s also a method to know truth in some sense. And, I’m drawn to that as well and like the reliability that comes with it.”
Southerner: If you could have any superpower what would it be?
Mraz: “Some very obvious ones like being able to fly would be super useful. Like, moving very fast would just be like being able to instantly get places. I was always drawn, when you look at the comic books, to Wolverine. I always thought his ability of regeneration was like the best power because you probably just could never die. Yeah, he does feel pain, so maybe it’s better to just be invulnerable like Superman. It kind of sounds boring though to just say Superman’s invulnerability, so I’ll just go with Wolverine’s regeneration.”
Southerner: Where’s your favorite place to go to for vacation?
Mraz: “Well definitely the one I often talk about, my extended family has a couple of cabins and we like to go there in the summer. We go fishing, canoeing and boating. I’ve got a lot of memories there from going there as a kid. Honestly, it’s a relatively cheap vacation because our family already owns the place.”
Southerner: What’s your favorite music genre?
Mraz: “I can listen to anything that’s good, but I kind of lean in to like rock or alternative pop. I don’t follow any [artist] too closely. I know that my liked songs on Spotify all have some Sum 41 and 21 Pilots.”
Southerner: Where were you raised?
Mraz: “I was born in Cincinnati. After a few years in Cincinnati, my parents moved to Evansville. Then, I spent a mid portion of my childhood there. After fourth grade, they moved to Lafayette, Indiana, which is where my parents still live. They’ve moved a couple of times since then in Lafayette, but that’s kind of where I’ve always been.”
Southerner: What made you want to be a teacher?
Mraz: “When I first went to Purdue, I was not sure about being a teacher. I kind of just knew I liked science, and I started biology and just assumed I’d know what I’d want to do. I looked around and took this one class that was supposed to get my biology degree. Also, I remember I went to this fair where some people were in research, talking and doing presentations and everything. Maybe in another life I could’ve done research, but I kind of wanted to do something more interactive with people, not that I consider myself to be an extrovert. Then, like I said, I had a good biology teacher, so I think I wanted to be somewhat like him. After a semester of biology, I sort of just felt like the direction was teaching. I just kind of knew it at that point and had a slight change of direction in college. Then, I think it got more confirmed with it as I did student teaching, which is sort of your last year in class. There were tough moments for sure, but it felt more like I could be creative, a problem solver and could plan and be on my feet. I like having a dynamic job like that, not to mention it is nice that I have the weekends off in between. I just get to talk about science stuff that I like.”
