In Room 147, questions fly as fast as baseball pitches. Students lean forward, debating enzymes, proteins, and natural selection. At the center of it all stands Mr. Jeffrey Angus, Tenafly High School’s revered biology teacher, whose classroom always seems to hum with both curiosity and camaraderie. He laughs, gestures, and tells stories that transform DNA strands into characters and natural selection into a living, breathing process.
For Angus, biology isn’t just a subject, but rather a game of movement and connection, much like the sports he grew up playing. “I was always an athlete—baseball, football, and then a little basketball. ” he says. “So biology [and] sports anatomy kind of always interested me.” His fascination with the human body began when he took an anatomy class in high school, where he first realized how the science of life could explain the limits and strengths he felt on the field.
But becoming a teacher wasn’t always the plan. “Growing up, sports were more my passion,” Angus recalls. “But I was always interested in science and history. Those were my favorite subjects.” When it came time for college, he chose to major in Biology at The College of Saint Rose, a small school in Albany, New York, where he also played baseball. It was there, surrounded by teammates and microscopes alike, that his two worlds—teamwork and science—began to blend.
“[The College of Saint Rose] had a really strong teaching program,” he explains. “I started to take a lot of education courses with my biology degree.” That was when the idea of teaching began to take root as a real career path for Angus.
At first, he weighed between two possible futures: education or sports medicine. Both paths appealed to his love of science and helping others, but one stood out. “I knew teaching was something I wanted to do,” he says. With that decision, Angus began building what would become his life’s work, a pursuit driven by curiosity, a gift for communication, and a desire to understand the world at its core.
With his studies behind him and a future in teaching ahead, Angus set out to begin his journey. In 2004, he walked through the double doors of Xavier High School in Manhattan for the first time. The buzz of the city faded as he faced a room of students who would become his inaugural audience and eventually the foundation of everything that would follow in his career.
“It was a Jesuit [school]. It had a real strong sense of faith and community,” he recalls. “It was different from Tenafly—apples and oranges, really.” He later taught in Fort Lee before finding his long-term home at Tenafly High School, where he teaches Honors Biology and Anatomy, and has previously taught AP Biology, Physics, Chemistry, and Environmental Science.
However, what keeps him in the classroom is the same thing that drew him into sports: interaction, adaptability, and growth. “The best classes are the ones that ask questions,” Angus explains. “Hearing their questions gets me a real understanding of what the students understand. Therefore, based on that, you can adapt your lesson, [and] what you’re talking about.”
After more than twenty years in education, Angus’s drive remains strong. He’s still chasing that perfect balance between structure and freedom, between teacher and teammate. “[My classes] are productive, but loose. We’re not overly strict.” he says with a smile.
When asked which school has been his favorite to teach at, Angus pauses before answering. “Tenafly is a great school,” he says. “I love it here—great students, great energy.”
It’s that energy, the same spark that once fueled his love of sports, that now fuels his passion for helping students grow, and in his classroom, that energy is contagious. For Mr. Angus, it is clear that he’s exactly where he’s meant to be.
