Mr. Niggemeyer, or Mr. N, has been working at Seattle Prep for 44 years. He originally started out in 1977, when he was 24 years old, “not much older than students.” Mr. Niggemeyer attended Gonzaga University for five years. It was in a class at Gonzaga where he met a guy in class who was working at Prep. He was informed of an open teaching position and went straight from college to teaching.

Over the years Mr. Niggemeyer has taught Chemistry and Physics, as well as being the head-coach of basketball, track and field, and cross country. This year would be his 3^rd year teaching part time, however this year he is teaching both Chemistry and Physics, whereas last year he only taught Chemistry. With the pandemic came the transition to online learning. A learning curve for many teachers, including Mr. Niggemeyer, was adjusting to the use of technology to teach their classes, adding “When I came to Prep, we didn’t have computers and the Internet did not exist.” However, Mr. N agrees that technology has its benefits, such as looking up science charts and data.

It has been over a year since Prep announced the 2-week break. Teaching in a pandemic is tough because teachers aren’t together with all of their students. Mr Niggemeyer adds, “[its] hard to [teach] when looking at half the people through the screen and the other half here [in class].” People took for granted being together all the time, and “COVID showed the significance of it.” With the transition to hybrid learning, Mr. N has been adjusting to what he refers to as the “Zoomification of America and planet earth” (turning everyone into what he calls “Zoombies”), OneNote and Teams.

In addition to adjusting to the technological curve of online learning, during the pandemic Mr. Niggemeyer has been leading a healthy lifestyle. He goes on powerwalks with his rescue dog, Sammy, reading, watching TV, and “eating Keebler Fudge Striped Cookies and Tillamook Mudslide ice cream.” He spends time with family, “buts its been hard to do [because of COVID].” Mr. Niggemeyer also mentioned how he has picked up Photography, adding on “I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up…maybe a world class photographer.”