“Mr. Bob or Mr. Marcacci has lived many lives before he took his place here at Oakland School for the Arts, and those countless travels has given him a very interesting story to tell.” -- Star Schainker, 9th grade
Marcacci started out as a newspaper deliverer in his home town. “I wanted to be rich I guess, like every kid maybe. I played music so I thought I may go into music,” He didn’t grow up wanting to be a teacher but he tried to work in the tech industry in the 90s working with internet research and tech support work. “.. That was pretty boring and I lost my job eventually because that market crashed,” he says. Marcacci’s staff bio reads “.. Marcacci earned BA and MA degrees in English and an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. He has also earned an MEd in Cross-Cultural Instruction from National University.” So he in total had 10 years of English degrees through college. After losing his tech job, Marcacci moved for another job.
Marcacci moved to Japan where he met his future wife,” we moved to china and we got married and spent a year in italy where our son was born,” he says. After that, Marcacci and his family moved to the states where he worked in california previously, about 15 years ago. His next home was Qatar in the middle east where he and his family lived for eight years before they came back to california and found a job at Oakland School for the Arts.
“I like here a lot. I wanted to work at an art school and so when I saw there was an opening I applied to work at this school.” says Marcacci. Compared to all the other schools he worked at across the globe, the difference in pay made the school less appealing to Marcacci. But he found many pros to working here, “Its smaller, the students are more motivated to be here because you're all studying your art so you’re all tolerating the academics so you can do your art in the afternoon which is cool,” he says.
“I try to use techniques from what I learned or know about writing in the classroom for example I think my poetry unit is pretty good.” Marcacci explains how he tries to emphasize using language in interesting ways rather than just poetry. He looks at form and shows writing examples as models to try and help students get in the creative mindset to make their own complex and unique forms. “Hopefully, all of that lays the foundation for being more inventive later.” he says.
Mr. Bob is a creative and interesting teacher, whose life before OSA is a story to behold. It is a good example of how youth sometimes don’t think of teachers beyond their role in their classroom but Marcacci had a very expansive and amazing life. His teaching style is affected by his life as a writer and he has a wonderful way of getting kids to see language in new ways by transferring his own personal love for language and words. He strives for a classroom of students who leave class knowing something and getting something they didn’t expect out of a high school English class. “I want to make my school better, I make my school better because I come everyday and I try hard, and I try to do better than the day before.”
Marcacci moved to Japan where he met his future wife,” we moved to china and we got married and spent a year in italy where our son was born,” he says. After that, Marcacci and his family moved to the states where he worked in california previously, about 15 years ago. His next home was Qatar in the middle east where he and his family lived for eight years before they came back to california and found a job at Oakland School for the Arts.
“I like here a lot. I wanted to work at an art school and so when I saw there was an opening I applied to work at this school.” says Marcacci. Compared to all the other schools he worked at across the globe, the difference in pay made the school less appealing to Marcacci. But he found many pros to working here, “Its smaller, the students are more motivated to be here because you're all studying your art so you’re all tolerating the academics so you can do your art in the afternoon which is cool,” he says.
“I try to use techniques from what I learned or know about writing in the classroom for example I think my poetry unit is pretty good.” Marcacci explains how he tries to emphasize using language in interesting ways rather than just poetry. He looks at form and shows writing examples as models to try and help students get in the creative mindset to make their own complex and unique forms. “Hopefully, all of that lays the foundation for being more inventive later.” he says.
Mr. Bob is a creative and interesting teacher, whose life before OSA is a story to behold. It is a good example of how youth sometimes don’t think of teachers beyond their role in their classroom but Marcacci had a very expansive and amazing life. His teaching style is affected by his life as a writer and he has a wonderful way of getting kids to see language in new ways by transferring his own personal love for language and words. He strives for a classroom of students who leave class knowing something and getting something they didn’t expect out of a high school English class. “I want to make my school better, I make my school better because I come everyday and I try hard, and I try to do better than the day before.”