Mr. Parisi, his wonderful wife Suzanne, and their son Anthony, live in McLean with their dog Max. Anthony is a recent graduate of GW Community School. Mr. Parisi graduated from the University of Dayton with a B.S. in electrical engineering and received his MBA from John Carroll University with concentrations in management, finance, and marketing. After a career in biomedical engineering, Mr. Parisi worked at the United States Patent and Trademark Office and later earned his law degree from George Mason University School of Law.

Mr. Parisi has taught Geometry, Algebra 2, Probability & Statistics, and Precalculus courses at GW Community School as well as Freshman English and Senior Honors English for the last three years. Before that, he was an adjunct professor at the American University College of Law teaching patent law and writing classes.

Recently, Mr. Parisi worked as a partner in a patent firm by day while playing hockey at night. He loves going to concerts and camping with his wife Suzanne in their 1987 Volkswagen camper.

Courses taught

Honors English: True Crime, Justice, and Power

This course explores the captivating, and sometimes disturbing, world of true crime stories and the dark gravitational pull of murder media, but not the blood-and-guts TV version your aunt binge watches with wine and a weighted blanket. It’s about what happens when real people’s real deaths become content, become “narrative,” become, in some cases, strangely soothing background noise while someone folds laundry. In this class, we will not just consume true crime—we will dissect it, deconstruct it, drag it squirming into the fluorescent light of ethical inquiry. We will ask uncomfortable questions (e.g., Why does this feel so good to listen to? Why are so many of us, in a world already rife with real trauma, voluntarily adding additional horror into our minds?), and then we will interrogate the asking of the questions themselves. We’ll read books, watch documentaries, listen to podcasts and figure out how each format distorts and dramatizes what is ostensibly "truth." We’ll discuss the difference between justice and closure, justice and vengeance, and justice and entertainment. Spoiler: They are not the same.

Course Advisory Due to the nature of true crime, you will be exposed to upsetting content—violence, murder, sexual assault, real people at their absolute worst. If it ever feels like too much, you may step out of class. No explanation required. Ever.

Honors English 11-12 | Rhetoric

It all begins inside: inside the heads of students. There are ideas in there and language and emotions and endless possibilities. Writing is pulling together all of that inside stuff. Writing is practicing getting that inside stuff onto the page. Students rehearse and practice by doing. Teachers help support the rehearsals and the practices by helping students understand strategies that they use and by suggesting others that they can try. The more effective the practice and rehearsal, the more effectively we can communicate our ideas and opinions. The rhetoric class is designed to help students study, develop, and practice their writing and speaking skills using the power, beauty, and effectiveness of language. The rest of the class raises questions as the writer’s text emerges. Through readings, discussions, and writing assignments, students further develop their writing and speaking skills and learn to effectively reason and communicate ideas. We assist the writers by encouraging and supporting the writers’ decision-making as the pieces evolve. The rhetoric class helps to develop forms that pieces can take by experimenting with language. Ideas come first, and writers test the range of possibilities—they learn about adding and deleting ideas. They learn to arrange and rearrange and expand and contract ideas as a piece develops. Students will practice and hone their skills by reading, writing, debating, and presenting. We will analyze how authors write rather than simply looking at what authors write.

Statistics

They say that fifty-six-point-seven percent of all statistics are made up right there on the spot and that eighty-two-point-four percent of people believe them whether they’re accurate statistics or not. Regardless of what you believe, taking a statistics course provides improved numerical data literacy and a basis with which to organize data, test hypotheses, and make decisions based on objective criteria. If you have ever looked for H-values shopping at H-Mart, tried to watch the Bernoulli Trials on "Court TV," or think that a standard deviation is a criminal offense in six states, then this course will put you on the road to statistical literacy. Never again will you order a Poisson Distribution in a French restaurant. Statistics is a practical course in which students focus on the statistical thinking behind data collection, analysis, and drawing conclusions from data. The course helps students become more discerning consumers of statistics by studying four broad conceptual themes: exploring data with graphical and numerical techniques, developing plans for collecting and analyzing data, using probability to anticipate results, and confirming models and hypotheses through statistical inferences.

CONTACT

Email: parisij@gwcommunityschool.com
Phone: 703.978.7208
Subject: Math