About Me

 My name is Dan Davinroy. My day job is teaching and my hidden job is writing, recording, and performing songs. As the old cliche goes, I did not quit my day job for the life of a musician. 

However, teaching, even in the unorthodox way I have had to practice the craft, has been a rewarding job because every year brings a new face and with it a story. This blog is called alternative ed teacher St. Louis because I have been teaching students who are the outliers on the bell curve of high school students. Most of the outliers were on the left side of the curve, but many were on the right side. In fact, one of my most recent students scored a 34 on the ACT. It would be great if I could post all sort of innovative insights on how to reach and motivate students who are struggling with the high school system, but my only proven success is just being myself. I am honest with students and I treat them as competent humans who are on the cusp of entering adulthood. My job was and is to help students move forward. Most of the time my efforts were and continue to be successful. 

Before I was a teacher, I was a young man searching for happiness in life. One of the best coping mechanisms for reducing stress as I navigated life was songwriting. I have forgotten many of those early songs before the purchase of a 4 track recorder and for posterity I have created a Soundcloud page with many of my demo recordings over the years. My performing name is Milo's Master. The name is a joke about my relationship to our family dog Milo. When Milo would listen to my commands and not my daughter's I would tell her that "I'm his master." The irony was that I was not his master and as it stands, I am his minion. Nonetheless, I like the alliteration so I am keeping Milo's Master. 

Teaching, writing, songwriting, and performing all came together with my dabble into children's music. In the spirit of Schoolhouse Rock, I created songs about life science compiled in an album or CD called Island of Life. I later created a handful of earth science songs. With many of these songs I created a little mini lesson and for the life science song a bunch of drawings. Oh yes, I like to draw too, but that pursuit has eluded me since I do not put much time into it. That is another goal of mine much like one's new year's resolution, the thought outweighs the action. 

My other hobbies are fly fishing/spin casting, frisbee golf, and camping. I also enjoy hiking and I would also like to pursue that in more detail too.