“I love working with this age of students, teaching for a long time since early in high school is what career I imagined myself doing. It is just rewarding to help students develop not just academically but coaching was a big part of how I got into teaching to do because it is another way to interact with kids.” Mr. Dan Vandermyde has a great attitude and has enjoyed his time here at TG!

Mr. Vandermyde has been with our school for a whopping 21 years serving as a Physics and Math teacher, and then as Associate Dean for 5 years, all before becoming the head of our E3 institute and Assistant Principal.  

Mr. Vandermyde’s role as Assistant Principal is important to him because “I do all kinds of things mostly academic related and a large piece of that is working with our teachers. I think our teachers are the most important adults in our building. I am also able to have some interaction with our students giving them some guidance academically. Same with our counseling department. While teachers and students are the most important people there are a lot of structures, decisions, and communication that need to happen and that is what an administrative role involves.”

Mr. Vandermyde is also the head of the growing engineering program. “The E3 program has gotten big fast and has grown faster than we envisioned. It has been an asset to our school. I think we’ve provided the students in the E3 program a great experience and some really good knowledge. Some discernment for their future college and career plans that I think is important as well.  I think it’s an attractive aspect of our school to families who are interested in TG.”

Mr. Vandermyde attended Minneapolis Edison high school and grew up in North Minneapolis. His favorite memories are playing football, wiffleball, biking to the park and hanging with friends. He also loved going up to the Boundary Waters with his family.

He also has had a blast going to Ireland on vacation, golfing as much as he can, and his favorite food is tacos.

 Totino-Grace has had a major impact on Mr. Vandermyde’s life. “My life has changed from being a young single guy to now a married guy with two kids so my life has changed quite a bit. TG in many respects has become a second home/family and I really enjoy the people I work with and many people have an impact on me so there are countless ways.” 

Mr. Vandermyde went to Harvard University, and he gave some valuable advice for our seniors going into their first year. “It’s a liberating time, and a fun time when you’re away from your parents. When you live in a dorm mostly with college freshman there’s a lot of fun in that. But you have to find the right balance between having down-time and focusing on why you’re there.”

Dan Gable said, “Life doesn’t give you what you want, it gives what you deserve. A good wrestler will train until they get it right, a great wrestler will train until they get it wrong.”  Those two sentences from wrestling great Dan Gable are words that Mr. Vandermyde relishes because he is a believer in working for what you desire in life rather than expecting things to come to you. Mr. Vandermyde  used to be a wrestling coach here at TG and his favorite memories were taking the program to it’s first state tournament appearance and semifinal matchup.

There is no question Mr. Vandermyde has given a great amount of dedication and care to Totino-Grace. He has coached wrestling, led the E3 program, and been one of the true leaders of our school!