Matthew Davis is the Physical Education teacher at Peabody Elementary School in Centennial Colorado. In addition, he is acting as the facilitator for the S.T.E.A.M (Science,Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) lab and makerspace for the school. He has also provided math and reading intervention to help struggling students and has been able to deliver direct instruction with various math and reading intervention curriculums. He started work there as a member of the school age child care program and continues to work as an activity leader. For the past nine years in the after school program, he has planned activities and curriculum for the 60-90 students a day based on current and historical events, holidays, classical and modern art, theater and dance.
Matthew received Associate of Arts in Theater from Casper College. Afterward he received his Bachelor's degree in Theater Performance from Minnesota State University where he graduated as valedictorian and with high honors. He has chosen to get his masters to deepen his knowledge of teaching and use it to become a licensed teacher.
He has also been a religious educator on staff at First Unitarian Society of Denver for the past eight years. He recently became a certified elementary level instructor in the Our Whole Lives human sexuality curriculum and is currently teaching the fifth and sixth grade OWL class there as well as being the Worship Arts Coordinator for the kindergarten through sixth grade program. He is also the Camp Director for the yearly week-long kindergarten through sixth grade summer camp there, employing middle and high school youth as counselors.
For the Unitarian Universalist Association He has also been the Camp Director for the General Assembly Middle School Youth Camp. This camp is a yearly camp happening in different cities each year and welcomes youth from around the country. He has also been a counselor for Spirit Quuest, a week long stay away camp for Universal Unitarian middle school students. Finally, in correlation with the Meadville Lombard School of Theology in Chicago, Matthew did a year long research project with the Fahs Collaborative in faith formation.
Matthew acted as the head of acting and dance for the Children’s Conservatory at Playhouse Merced, as well as doing after school acting classes and performances for low income schools throughout central California. Since moving back to Denver, he has directed, choreographed and taught for children’s theaters in the area. He has been privileged to perform with The National Theater for Children, touring schools with educational theater productions and continues to perform in Denver and the surrounding areas. He has had the pleasure of working as the Artistic Director of Arts in the Open, a company with the mission of combining theater, environmental education, and enjoyment and preservation of the environment, for the past ten years.