Asia Franks, Assistant Principal
Asia Franks is currently in her tenth year as an educator, and her third year as an Assistant Principal. A graduate of Temple University, Asia was inspired to become a teacher by her second grade teacher, Mrs. Ruben, who made learning both challenging and fun. During her time at Temple, she studied mathematics and education, and continued on to Teachers College. As a first-year teacher, Asia taught sixth grade math, where she was fortunate to be mentored by former principal David Krulwich.
In her ten years, she has been an advisor for the class of 2016 (#PowerOftheBean) and has taught a variety of math classes including sixth and eighth grade math and science, Algebra, Pre-Calculus, and AP Calculus. Outside of her responsibilities at AMS, Asia has served as a professor at Relay Graduate school for second-year math teachers and also tutored students across a range of ages and abilities – young people struggling with their homework to graduate students in advanced mathematics. Regardless of who she is teaching, her philosophy remains the same – all students can learn math when they are consistently provided with rigorous and discovery-based instruction and the benchmark of success is students being able to apply their knowledge to new and unfamiliar problems. As a team leader, she applies the same beliefs when developing middle and high school math teachers.
Although there are many, her favorite events of the school year will always be: trouncing the freshman in the annual football game, Pi5NY (the largest math tournament in NYC organized by AMS), and the alumni luncheon where she gets to see her former sixth grade students as college freshman. An avid runner and traveler, Asia looks forward to seeing future cohorts of courageous and compassionate students graduate from high school.