Great restaurants, easy transportation, and city pride — just a few of the many reasons several Gilman faculty members call downtown Baltimore their home. Now is your chance to meet a few of them. Here's Gilman Middle School science teacher Mike Wallace.

Mike Wallace

Mike Wallace is a sixth and eighth grade science teacher, a sixth grade soccer and street hockey rotation coach, and the assistant varsity golf coach. In addition, he is a middle school advisor, the leader of Gilman's Earth Science Club (GMEC), the curator of "The Wallsonian" museum, and chief organizer of Expedition-8, the annual eighth grade class camping trip to The Mountain Institute West Virginia.

Prior to arriving at Gilman, Mr. Wallace was an earth science teacher and coach at Providence Day School in Charlotte, NC. He earned his undergraduate degree in geology from Hartwick College, his masters degree in earth sciences from Northern Colorado, and took additional classes at SUNY Oneonta, Indiana University and St. Lawrence University.

In his spare time, Mr. Wallace enjoys curating meteorites, fossils, and other interesting natural world items in his private museum, "The Wallsonian", which is located on the first floor of the Middle School. In addition, "Coach Wally" enjoys playing a variety of sports, including soccer, hockey, golf, and cycling.

Mr. Wallace also enjoys his bicycling art career, in which he blends GPS technology, creativity, and exercise to create enormous virtual geoglyphs based on his mountain bike pathways. His work can be seen on the web at www.wallygpx.com, and you are invited to follow his #GPS adventures on Facebook (Wally GPX), Instagram (@wallygpx) and Twitter (@WallyGPX).

What do you love about living in Canton?

I love living in the city for too many reasons to share in a simple sentence. In short, city life enables me to walk or ride my bike for exercise, transportation, and art creation purposes, while staying "near the action" of what Baltimore has to offer.

Why did you decide to become a teacher?

I firmly believe that I did not choose to become a teacher, but rather, teaching chose me.

A meaningful quote:

“We are each given a block of marble when we begin a lifetime, and the tools to shape it into sculpture. We can drag it behind us untouched, we can pound it to gravel, we can shape it into glory..." -Richard Bach

Your most memorable teacher: The late Jim Chisholm (Canton HS) and Jim Street (St. Lawrence University) will always remain as two extremely influential teachers in my life. My favorite coach is Mr. Wayne Willette of Canton, NY, and I would be remiss if I did not mention my grandfather, Bob Wallace, who was a WWII 8th Air Force lead bombardier, and forever the bravest man I have ever known.