Mr. Ajay Kalra is a new staff member of Phoenix this year. He is the new case manager for the Diverse Learners Department at PSMA. He helps out in the math classrooms with students who may need extra help with their work. 

According to Kalra, he was a student first at, “University of Delhi, then National Louis University, then Michigan University and then the University of Illinois at Chicago.” 

Kalra first realized he wanted to be a teacher after tutoring students in India to help them with standardized testing. He also taught Algebra to U.S. Marines stationed in India. Mr. Kalra has been working in CPS for about 21 years now, as both a teacher and consultant. 

He said has worked at schools such as, “Kelvyn Park High School, Olivet Nazarene University, and Tilden Achievement Academy.” 

PSMA is his fifth school so far. 

 “My forte is Mathematics as all my education from bachelors to STEM leadership had Math as a major and I love teaching math using real life scenarios / applications,” said Kalra. 

He is a math tutor and that is something he has always been interested in, so he usually always helps out in the classroom with Mr. Avink, the math instructor for transitional math. He is best known for using real life examples to help his students understand.