Zak Thompson

“I like your class, Mr. Thompson.” “Why?” “Because we get to make stuff!”

Zak Thompson is excited to be spending another year at Bennett Day School in the Tinkering and Engineering Sciences Lab (TESLab). After receiving a B.A. in political science from Illinois Wesleyan University and an M.Ed. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Zak spent 6 years teaching for Chicago Public Schools, both as a fourth and fifth grade teacher as well as running the school’s technology lab. Since 2017, Zak has been in the TESLab, helping students navigate these hands-on experiences as they develop the skills, passions, and mindset to be innovators in school and beyond. In the TESLab, we use modern tools to solve authentic problems because there is nothing more powerful than bringing something new into the world.