Dan Busse was born and raised on the south-side of Chicago, and is the youngest of 10 children. He graduated from high school in 1977 but didn’t start attending college for seven years. Those seven years (the scenic route to education) prepared him for teaching in ways that going directly to college never would have. When he did finally begin his education it was through the City Colleges of Chicago where he earned enough credits to be taken as a probationary student at the University of Illinois at Chicago. While there he tried Business Administration but soon realized that cubicles and numbers were not for him. Eventually (it took longer than usual because he worked full time and paid his own tuition) he earned his BA in English and didn’t know what to do with it, so he went for his MA while simultaneously earning his secondary education endorsement. Today he is a Level III teacher certified in both Language Arts and Social Studies. After doing student teaching in Chicago he worked as the safety and training coordinator at a manufacturing company. While there he helped establish on site ESL classes at each of the company’s 3 facilities.
In 1997 he moved to Albuquerque and began teaching at Rio Rancho High School. While there he taught Humanities 10 & 12 (both Enriched and Regular), Government, Economics, Literature at the Movies, Mythology, Philosophy, the Bible as/in Literature, and Communication Skills. Teaching so many different classes to students across the whole spectrum has given him a great appreciation for all the different types of students there are and all the different approaches necessary to teach them about the importance of learning. During this time he also earned his Social Studies endorsement.
Dan believes that every student needs to learn, but the key is letting them know that they can do it best by starting from their own place and building from that point. Working at Gordon Bernell is a great place to try and convince students that no matter what they’ve done, they can always develop into something better, and the best way to do that is through changing old ways and learning new ones. Both of these can be addressed through traditional and innovative approaches to social studies, language arts, personal expression, and all the classrooms which life presents us with. He believes that everyone deserves a second chance, but gaining the desire for learning makes the second chance much better than the first.