When walking down the hallway, many students might see a familiar face holding the door open. With his welcoming smile and encouraging comments, many Lincoln Hall Middle School alumni might remember eighth-grade math teacher Michael Endo. This year, Endo started working at West after spending eight years at Lincoln Hall. He teaches algebra two and geometry.
Endo thought it was time to make the switch to continue helping his middle school students, as well as other students from the community, outside of Lincoln Hall.
“I felt that it was time for me to move on with my middle school students and to kind of continue to help high school students as well as my old middle school students. And to really exercise the learning that I’ve obtained and help transfer it to the students here,” Endo said.
The path to education was one Endo didn’t originally plan on taking. He initially went into pharmacy at Northeastern Illinois University, but after coaching football at Niles North, he found teaching was his true passion.
“I really enjoyed working with students and helping students achieve whatever goal they aspire to. I really wanted to make an impact on the community…So I really got into education and specifically math because I felt like there was a need and I felt like that need could have been filled by me,” Endo said.
Endo started at Niles North as a paraprofessional in 2014 and moved to Lincoln Hall in 2018 after deciding it was time for his own classroom. Endo decided to stay in the community because he loved how diverse it was growing up.
“Growing up in this community has really shown me the value of diversity and I really have fallen in love with just getting to know other people’s cultures and their experiences. Yeah. So I decided to stick around”, Endo said.
Endo graduated from Niles North in 2006. Former Niles North teacher and current Niles West math teacher Daniel Newman has known Endo for 23 years and says that it is a pleasure to work with one of his students.
“We met on the basketball court when he was playing and I was coaching his brother. He was a scrappy, tough point guard. He was focused and worked hard in practice. I also had him in Geometry at Niles North and he would help others and get his work finished pretty quickly. I was surprised when I ran into him years later and found out he was teaching middle school math… I couldn’t be happier to have a former student sitting right beside me every day, especially one I’ve known my whole career at D219,” Newman said.
Sophomore Patricia Vidrean was a student of Endo’s in eighth grade and again this year in geometry.
“When I saw Mr. Endo, I wasn’t scared anymore because I knew how he taught and how he acted, it made him feel more approachable. He’s a really friendly and welcoming guy, he really tries to get your friend instead of being an opposing figure,” Vidrean said.
In his free time, Endo plays a variety of sports, and in the future, he wants to help coach Niles West teams.
