About Mr Andoscia

Hello to all:

My name is Mr. Andoscia. That’s pronounced ann-doe-shya. For those of you who simply can’t do that, I also go by Mr. A. This year I will be teaching AICE Sociology, Regular Sociology, Honors Economics, Honors Government and Philosophy. I am excited to take all of these classes to the next level.

I have a bachelor’s degree in Social Science Education from the University of South Florida. That means I set out from the beginning to be a teacher. My first love is history. So, when it came time for me to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, I decided I wanted to spend it talking about history. I know, right! So I set out to be a teacher. It wasn’t entirely a straight line, but here I am, your teacher.

My master’s degree is in sociology. Sociology? Who gets a graduate degree in sociology? Well, that’s a good question. I began my career as a wilderness counselor (like I said, not a straight line) working with juvenile offenders at a level six residence program in the middle of the Everglades. Many of my first kids were adjudicated delinquents, often gang affiliated. I worked with these kids, sometimes as long as two years to try to get them where they needed to be (or rather where society defined they needed to be). I often found that kids who were fine while at camp, went home and ended up getting into the same trouble that got them removed from society in the first place. That’s what got me interested in sociology. What was it about being at camp that was different from being in the school, neighborhood or community?

While studying sociology I found that it was the perfect outlet for my love of history and my interest in philosophy. I became interested in the Sociology of Knowledge, which draws a great deal from the study of history, mostly the history of ideas. In 2004, I received the opportunity to teach sociology at Edison State College, now Florida Southwestern State College and Florida Gulf Coast University. I taught college for fifteen years.

When I got the opportunity to teach Sociology here at North, I jumped at it. I really believe that the sociological imagination offers some of the most innovative ways to understand the world around us. I am passionate about this subject to the point where I started a blog called the Mad Sociologist Blog. It is now one of the top fifty sociology blogs on the internet.

I’m also a writer, though I haven’t published anything lately, I do have two published novels to my name. The first was called Stone is not Forever and the second is The Revelation of Herman Smiley. Unfortunately, these books are now out of print, but they had a good run. If you are interested I can loan you one of my copies. I’m currently working on some new manuscripts, but life is pretty busy and the writing is slow.

I’m also an artist. I work in pencil, pen and charcoal as well as oil paints. I’m mostly self taught. I’ve been away from the easel for a while, but hope to get back into the arts soon.

Me and the family in China. We love to travel.

In the meantime, I exercise my artistic yen by doing YouTube videos. You can check out my YouTube Channel that includes a Sociology Class and a News Commentary.

On top of all that, I’ve been married to the same wonderful woman, Jennifer Andoscia, for over fifteen years now. She is a behavior analyst and owner of ABA Results in Fort Myers. My son, Tekoa, is a former Red Knight. Some of you might know him. My daughter is a junior here at North, but has been working with North’s marching band and indoor percussion team since middle school. I’m also the father of four dogs, an American Mastiff named McKinley, a long-haired Chihuahua named Everest, a blind, deaf, albino Doberman named Falcor and a Golden Retriever named Aberdeen. I also have two tortoises, a one-eyed Gopher Tortoise named Wink and an African Spur Thigh named Efe.