Mike Longnecker

I was born and raised in Aptos, California, which is located just south of Santa Cruz. My mom was a teacher so my twin brother and I would often spend long hours after school in her classroom when I was younger. Years later, we would both grow up to become teachers. Now, I have two little boys of my own and my wife and I both teach at Rogue River Elementary so the process seems to be repeating itself.

I attended college at San Jose State University, where I studied business and accounting. After working at a PR firm while in college, I decided that wasn't the life for me and I wanted to work with children. I transferred to Sonoma State University to finish my BA and worked as an outdoor educator, where I grew a love for teaching.

After college, my wife and I moved to Los Angeles so she could pursue a career in fashion design. I got my teaching credential from California State University, Los Angeles and completed my student teaching in Hollywood, which sounds cooler than it actually was.

Luckily, life brought us to San Francisco where I taught math, science, gardening, ELD, and art over an 8 year time span at James Lick Middle School. The school I worked at was featured in the Pixar film Inside Out and artists actually came in and sketched my old classroom, which appeared in the film. Sadly, they didn't ask me to be in the film but I love telling that story.

After my wife and I had our second child, we moved to Grants Pass to be closer to my family, which is spread out all over Grants Pass, Merlin, and Murphy. We love living up here and I've taught at Rogue River Elementary for the last 8 years.

My Favorites

Food:  Pizza

Movie:  Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Book:  Recursion by Blake Crouch

Color:  Amber

Drink:  Coke

Season:  Spring

Fast Food:  In-N-Out

Animal:  Giraffe

Hobby:  Skydiving, BASE jumping, and shark wrestling