Lights, Camera, and the Properties of Pi! This twist on a familiar theatre tagline could perfectly describe Cody Juffer of North Sioux City, South Dakota. He is a mathematician, thespian, educator, and director. An East River Youtube star and mentor to many, Juffer is well known in Southeast South Dakota for connecting with students and igniting a passion for STEM subjects and the fine arts.

He noted, “To me, I often relate teaching to a performance, it’s the theatre side of me. I view each class period as another show. It is all about having energy and being excited about the day’s content.”

Juffer was born in Windom, Minnesota and became a permanent resident of South Dakota at the young age of one-year-old. His dad and mom, Jeff and Melonie Juffer, moved the family to Wagner because Juffer’s father had been raised there. His parents still live in Wagner. Juffer’s dad and uncle own a real estate and insurance business in town, while his mom is a special education aide at the middle school and also assists the school’s swim program for P.E. classes.

“I attended all thirteen years of school in Wagner,” detailed Juffer who has three younger sisters.

It was during fifth grade that he made his acting debut for Missoula Children’s Theatre. The traveling performance program visited Juffer’s school to cast, rehearse, and perform a show all in one week. Juffer described himself as “a pretty anxious kid”, so he is uncertain what gave him the confidence to audition, but he did and earned a part in a western version of “The Wizard of Oz”.

Juffer recalled, “I had so much fun and my nerves simply seemed to melt away on stage.”

After his adolescent debut, Juffer did not reconnect with the theatre until eleventh grade. It was through the encouragement of a drama teacher that he participated in his high school’s spring production and also made theatre a priority during his senior year.

“I truly regret not partaking in theatre all four years of high school. However, I kept my passion for theatre alive all throughout college. I took a theatre practicum class quite often, where I had the chance to work behind the scenes on shows with sets, props, etc. I also auditioned for quite a few shows, but only was cast in two. This was a good learning experience for me, as it allowed me to serve on the crew and gain more knowledge about the finer details of a production,” explained Juffer who attended Mount Marty in Yankton from 2006-2010 and received a bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education and Mathematics.

His first teaching position was in Viborg, South Dakota where Juffer taught geometry, physics, and middle school math. He was on staff during the time when Viborg and the neighboring town of Hurley shared resources and eventually consolidated into one district. Viborg students were invited to audition for Hurley’s spring production during Juffer’s tenure and he took on the task of monitoring the Viborg theatre participants as an assistant director. It was such a positive experience that the following year he accepted the director’s job.

“Big changes came in 2012, when the Viborg and Hurley school districts became a thing of the past and the Viborg-Hurley School District was created. In addition to being the director of the spring production, I asked administration if I could start a one-act play program. It was something I never had the opportunity to do in high school and I always enjoyed attending the region competitions that were held at Mount Marty. The one-act play program gives a chance for students to compete against other schools with theatre. During the competition, each school performing has forty-five minutes to set up, perform, and tear down their show. The students then listen to a critique from the judges,” explained Juffer.

In addition to the theatre program, Juffer was also making strong connections with students in his math classes. Juffer taught middle schoolers and high school students during his initial years of teaching. It was in his first year, when Juffer made a deal with his seventh graders to create a math music video with them if they could work through all of their lesson material by the end of the semester.

“We decided to do it on the digits of the number Pi. We wrote the lyrics together as a class and found a karaoke track to use. We then filmed the video in one class period,” commented Juffer. “My second year of teaching I made the same deal with my seventh grade students and another music video was born. When I entered my third year of teaching, I no longer taught middle school students. However, my high school students also wanted to make a music video, which we did.”

Juffer came to the Dakota Valley school district in North Sioux City in 2014 and his reputation preceded him. His predecessor in the math department had shown Juffer’s YouTube clips in class. The videos were so popular that Juffer still upholds the tradition of making one with each year’s math pupils. His YouTube channel (mrjuffermath) has over 185 subscribers with some views hitting beyond the 5K mark. Video themes include the order of operations, factoring polynomials, and even learning about radians to the tune of “Ice Ice Baby”. He and his students’ rendition to explain the unit circle in math has over 17,000 views and was lip synched to a karaoke track of “Thrift Shop" by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

Math and theatre students have flourished from Juffer’s creative way of educating and engaging. Juffer has been able to get kids so interested in the theatre program at Dakota Valley that the number of participants and letter winners have more than doubled during his tenure. Juffer’s first play at Dakota Valley included a cast and crew of 43 students. Three years later he directed 114 pupils in “The Sound of Music”.

“My third show (at Dakota Valley) was the first musical I ever directed. I wanted the musical to be an extra special experience for the students, so I asked permission from the district to see if we could make it a K-12 production. The focus would still be on high school students, but elementary and middle school students would have the chance to be involved as well. I also decided to take a risk and involve an orchestra,” commented Juffer who had to add an extra performance of “The Sound of Music” since it sold-out on opening night.

Juffer not only teaches and directs his students, he sometimes even joins them on stage. He became active in community theatre upon moving to North Sioux City. The area metro’s playhouse often loans or rents costumes to Dakota Valley and it was while Juffer was returning items that he got approached to fill in for a part in the 2015 season’s “The Christmas Carol”.

“I agreed and after that I was bitten by the community theatre bug,” admitted Juffer who was cast in the musical “Mary Poppins” the next year and has been performing regularly ever since.

In 2017, Juffer won the part of Oliver Hix in “The Music Man” and this role was unique because it involved being part of a barbershop quartet. Two of the other quartet members were students from Dakota Valley and Juffer valued the chance to grow onstage with his pupils. Since then he has also been cast as Patsy in “Spamalot” and in the lead role of The Baker in “Into the Woods”. Most recently he auditioned and was cast in the upcoming show for New Stage Players as Vice Principal Douglas Panch in the production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” which will take the stage in June of this year.

Juffer commented, “There are many reasons why I continue to partake in community theatre. For one, I enjoy theatre and the people you meet doing it are simply one of a kind. Also, I consider it professional development, as working with other directors gives me ideas and insights into what I can do with the DV theatre program.”

Be it math class or opening night of a big performance, Juffer is committed to making the experience memorable for all. It is thrilling for him to see students grow in confidence and skill. Even when Dakota Valley had to go to remote learning due to COVID-19 during the second semester of the 2020 school year, Juffer still found ways to connect with his pupils. He was already in the habit of recording his teaching lessons, so that practice continued in order to allow him to share with students his lectures and classwork. He also adapted quite well to doing live ZOOM meetings for kids to attend.

Teaching remotely is not the same as in-class interactions, but Juffer still made the best of the situation. While he missed joking around with students and building rapport, there were lots of laughs once some of his pupils found old yearbook photos online from Wagner Community School. Some of them would post vintage pictures of Juffer as their ZOOM background which brought laughs during a difficult situation. Having fun, but always remaining dedicated to the process of teaching and helping students to understand keeps Juffer motivated and well-respected in the field of education.

“There is no feeling quite like seeing a student grasp and understand a topic. I love watching them gain confidence in themselves as learners and individuals. I am humbled by the fact that I get to be a small part of their journey in life.”