"Step into my hot box. Have a seat." Upper School faculty Trefor Davies sat in his Willoughby Street office overlooking Popeye's Fried Chicken and trying to keep the blistering afternoon sun out of his face. He had spent the morning chaperoning a freshman field trip to the National Museum of the American Indian in Lower Manhattan.  This is his first year in the Upper School after years of serving as head of the Middle School math department and so far he likes his new surroundings. "It's a big change for me," he said.  After months of prodding, staff writer Jeffrey Stanley cornered him for a few moments last week. He kept his door open so he could remain available to students who stopped by regularly to pop their heads in with questions.

 IB Math to juniors and the senior math course Problem Solving.

 In a way it's much more like a creative writing class.  For example in something like Algebra  you're kind of learning the greatest hits of others in terms of how to solve a problem, but this class puts more emphasis on the students finding ways to solve a problem and use a little invention of their own.

International Baccalaureate Diploma Program Coordinator.  I usually just use three of those words in random combination when people ask my title.

4.  How long have you been at BFS? 

This is my eighth year teaching here. Ninth year at the school if you count my year away.

The Klingenstein Center [at Columbia University Teachers College] offers a number of different programs for teachers.  The one that I did was a full year master's program in private school leadership.  It involved a huge range of classes to prepare you to be a school head. Legal issues, marketing, ethics, financial stuff.

It was absolutely rigorous. Tiring, a very full semester.  6 classes in each semester.

7. What did you do before you came to BFS?    

I was doing research in math education, how students learn, and how teachers learn about teaching math.

It was a job.  I worked in the Cognitive Science department at Vanderbilt University.

I was raised in Nashville. We've talked about this before when I noticed your Elvis TCB tattoo.

9.  Oh, that's right.  Why did you wind up in  New York City? 

I went to my college fifth year reunion and realized all of my friends lived here so I decided it was time for me to move.

I met Whitney [Thompson] at Oberlin College, that was undergraduate days.  I knew her my freshman year. She was a sophomore.

11.  So you admired each other from afar?

She probably didn't even know me.
He laughs

This wasn't a college romance thing, we just became friends and kept in touch. After I moved to New York she told me about this job here to teach math. Eventually it turned into more.  We got married in October '06.

Lefferts Gardens. 

I spend time with our new son Oscar. He was born in November '07. And I try to fix up the new house we bought recently. I just refinished the front doors and that was an awful experience. It took 100 hours to do what I thought would take 10. That's a bad ratio.

Ali's Roti.  It's not really a restaurant. It's a little place on Flatbush around the corner from our house. The curried beef is fantastic.

What about Whitney?

Oh, she likes it. I'm not sure it'd be her top favorite.

Being in the Upper School.  It's given me an opportunity to see into the school in a new way.

 The Upper School revolves around giving the students a lot more freedom.  The whole feeling is different. There's no time in a Middle Schooler's life that they are not supervised. There's a different approach to students, and the students have a different approach to teachers.  Also it's completely eye opening to see how our students love BFS.  I hear them come out of Quaker Meeting saying how great it was.

I don't believe you. 

I know it sounds like a marketing brochure but it's true. That might be uniquely Upper School, especially when it's becoming clear that they're gonna be moving along soon. They appreciate the community. They really do feel warmly about this place.

Not a big fan of lunch duty.  Walking around making sure people throw away their food isn't much fun.  I also don't like the 8 am start.  9 am would be fantastic, especially with our having a baby and needing to get up in the predawn hours.

No people, because "things" precludes this.
You can do people.  Don't think too hard about this, no one's going to hold you to it, it's not really going to happen.

Absolutely. Um...my TV so I can watch NFL football...
How about a favorite book?

Oh! My Dutch oven.
Wait, you cook?  See, this could have gone up under hobbies. You cook stews?

I'm a big fan of stews but also French inspired chicken dishes.  This baby has cut down on my cooking time though.  It doesn't help that the kitchen's right outside his room.

And I'd have to say Patrick [Cassidy; friend and former BFS teacher]. He's one of the most hysterical, smart people I've ever met. I could build a boat for him and he could come up with the words for it.

A lot of random condiments.  There's this West Indian hot sauce I always have a fair amount of.  Oh and tons of pepper jack cheese from Cosco.  Some ribeye steaks hopefully.

Cancer but generally I opt not to tell people.
Why not?

Because then they try to see if I fit the profile.
Do you?

I don't even know what the profile is.
You don't ever take a peek at your horoscope just to see what it says? It always impresses me how little it says. I'm a skeptic. For a long time in the Tennessean horoscope page, they had Cancer, and then, I guess because of the negative connotation, they switched it to Moon Child. So I'm a moon child.