Heyck-Williams is an instructional guide at Two Rivers Public Charter School in Northeast Washington. To help improve dwindling math scores, he started dressing up as a wizard to make the subject more fun for students. Students’ grades have climbed since the wizard was introduced.

What about math interests you? I’ve always loved math. I’ve been teaching for the last 15 years, and I transitioned into an administrative role nine years ago. Four years ago, we needed another math teacher, and I simultaneously noticed a disturbing trend that our math scores were trailing our literacy scores. I knew we had to do something to address this.