Q & A
with Scott:
How
long have you been teaching? Have you
taught anywhere else?
This is my 18th year of teaching. I’ve taught the last 10 years at
East High School. Prior to that I taught several years at the middle school
level and 2 years in the Fond du Lac School district.
What subject(s)
do you teach during the school year?
Usually I teach Info tech related classes. This year I have
a more broad schedule teaching Web Design 1, Web Design2, Personal
Finance, Business Law, and Business Co-op (senior level work experience
program).
Approximately how many students do you teach in a school year?
Typically around 200 students.
What/who motivated you to get into teaching?
Ironically enough, I originally had no intentions of being a teacher. My
undergraduate work at Michigan Tech University was in Business Information
Systems. Between my junior and senior year of college I worked
a summer program on campus for gifted and talented students teaching
basic computer programming. These kids were some of the brightest
young people in the state and after a week of teaching these kids, and
many times them teaching me, I knew I found my career. I finished
my major in business and then went on to get certified to teach. I’ve
never regretted a day of it in my life.
How might your students describe your teaching style?
They would hopefully view my style as more collaborative than anything. I
think they see me as positive and optimistic and that I have a good sense
of humor that they can relate to. I’m a pretty bad joke teller. My
jokes often seem to elicit more groans than laughter from my students.
I like painting the
big picture with the entire class and then working individually with
students to help them discover solutions to what they are working on. I
am passionate about the use of technology to improve learning. At
the same time I hope I’m preparing my
students with the technical skills to be successful in their future careers. I
will use just about any technological tool, be it blogs, wikis, podcasts,
whatever, to help kids get engaged in class and learn.
What do you love most about teaching?
I love that every day is different. Even if I teach the same class
2 or 3 times in the same day it never comes out the same way. I
like the “energy” of my job. No matter how I feel at
the start of the day as soon as the bell rings and kids start coming
into my classroom I get recharged. I love it when a student brings
in a real world problem related to what we’re doing in class and
we can explore that lead and see where it takes us. In my Web
Design classes kids come in all the time to show me something on the
web and ask if I know how it was created. They are surprised that
usually I DO in fact know how it was done, and when I can share that
knowledge with them it is really exciting. Some times kids tell
me they applied something they learned in my class to make their Myspace
of Facebook page “way cooler” than their friends. Seeing
how they applied what I taught them is a real kick to me.
What would you most like to change about teaching?
At the risk of sounding too political, I would really like to see No
Child Left Behind scrapped for something that made more sense. NCLB
has just sucked the life out of so many great teachers. Real
world problem solving and inquiry has been replaced by strategic plans
for how to get scores up and close achievement gaps. If we spent
more time having kids solve real world problems that are relevant to
them I think people might be surprised by how much kids actually learned
along the way.
What is your favorite memory/experience from your teaching career?
There are so many great memories that I have from my 18 years of teaching. I
don’t even know where to begin.
Several years ago
I started taking my Business Co-op students to a local team leadership
center. During our training at this program the
students participate in ground activities and a high ropes course. The
first year I did it we did a trust fall event where kids fell backwards
off of a 6 foot high platform into the arms of their classmates. To
make a long story short, after everyone took their turn, the class insisted
that I do it. They said to trust them that the WOULD catch me so
I did it – and yes they DID catch me. It was one of those
moments that set the tone for the entire school year.
Many of my best memories
I can’t recall specific events, but I
have had many kids that call or e-mail me 4, 6, 8 years after they graduated
to tell me they used something I had taught them. These types of
messages are such a boost. I would recommend every person take
time sometime this week to send a note to a teacher they remember. It’ll
make their day.
What is your least favorite memory/experience from your teaching
career?
Early in my teaching career I had a student who continually fell asleep
in my class. As a young teacher this was the ultimate insult to
me. After this happened several times I was so angry that I took
this student into the hallway and chewed him out. How dare he fall
asleep in my class! Was I that boring? How rude and disrespectful
sleeping in my class was. I finally asked him what he was doing
at night that was making him so tired in my class. Was it Television? Video
games? What was making him so tired?? The student proceeded
to tell me that he had been sleeping in his mom’s car out in the
garage for the last couple of weeks (it was February in Wisconsin at
the time) because the moms new boyfriend was abusive to him and his mom. I
can’t recall a time in teaching where I felt more embarrassed for
how I had reacted. There have been so many kids like this during
my 18 years of teaching. When you learn the background of each
student you sometimes wonder how they even manage to get themselves out
of bed to face the new day. This is probably why I work so hard
to be optimistic in front of my students. Many of them need someone
positive to give them hope.
How do you like to spend any free time you have away from teaching?
Most of my spare time is spent with my own kids. I have a 9 year
old son Nate who loves to play hockey and I have a 10 year old daughter
who loves to ride horses. When I’m not doing teacher related
things, which is unfortunately not very often even in the summer, I like
to golf, hunt, and work around the house.
I’m also an adjunct instructor for Marian University in the Educational
Technology masters degree program. In my role as an instructor
I teach teachers how to incorporate technology into their classroom to
improve learning.
I am fortunate in
that my wife Kim is also a teacher. We understand
what it takes to do this job well. It is nice to have someone that
I can talk about school with.
If you were not a teacher, what would you most likely be?
I think I would probably be working in the business world. Maybe
in a human resources type of position or more likely in an Info Technology
area. I know that whatever I was doing I wouldn’t be as happy
as I am being a teacher. I also know that they day I wake up and
don’t look forward to going to work is the day it’s time
to hang it up. I don’t see that day coming for many more
years.
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