A teacher’s point of view

As I finished up with my last 16hr shift on the Hot Shot crew, my face black, my hands raw, and my lungs full of the smoke from over 35 wild land fires over the summer, I knew I had to make a change. I threw myself into my 1969 VW van and began to “soul search.” Long story short, I settled on following my childhood passion and I went back to school to earn a Master’s degree and become a teacher.

After a year teaching in a public school system in Oregon I had an opportunity to teach students in an experiential wilderness setting in the Cascades of Western Oregon. I spent two full years of year round schooling where I developed outdoor experiential curriculum and taught traditional subjects such as Math and History in a 25 ft yurt surrounded by a campus of 180 acres with two ponds, three bunkhouses (built by students) and an A-frame that served as our administration office. Throughout these two years I learned a lot about education and myself. I was able to develop individualized education plans for students who I knew on a personal basis. I learned to cater to their learning styles as well as to challenge them in unique ways that would help prepare them for their next step in life. They taught me that I am not always right and that students are not always looking for an answer if they have a question, sometimes they just want someone to ask the question to. They also taught me that if I wanted to get respect I needed to give respect, I needed to lead by example or my words would just go in one ear and out of the other. We created meaningful bonds which there are many students that I still keep in touch with as they are attending various colleges around the U.S.

Oh, did I forget to mention that these kids were involuntarily stuck at this school with me for a 6 month minimum? They were taken from their home towns and brought to our school to find their way in life. I, as their teacher would camp with them overnight and take their shoes so they could not run while we were asleep. We learned to respect each other and they learned that education involves much more than copying vocabulary words out of a text book.

So how does Salida High School fit in with all of this? I am a Math teacher at SHS and I feel all of those valuable lessons that I learned in Oregon truly support my educational philosophy here in Salida. My progressive style forces me to get to know students and develop a relationship that allows me to help students with their academic experience, while showing them a perspective that gets them excited about learning and about experiencing life in a unique way that best suits their passions.

As I look around at the faculty of SHS I realize there are at least 12 other teachers with similar experiences as mine, and have the energy that really shows in their lessons and their rapport with the students in the high school. We have teachers who have taken students all around the world in order to help them pursue a professional kayaking experience, another has taught at the university level and is attempting to hike the entire Pacific Crest Trail, another worked in Mongolia for the Peace Corps, one who marched for peace in Washington, one who taught leadership skills in the backcountry of Utah and Colorado, one that taught in Indonesia. I have seen teachers laugh with students, cry with students, reflect and brainstorm with students, and even be corrected by students. All of these experiences help build a community of aware and cultured students that have a passion for life, an interest in learning, and a mind that is open to new experiences.

Students growing up in today’s society need an education that goes way beyond just memorizing and regurgitating facts, names, dates, and places. They need a connection to a world that captures their interest and their experiences. They long to connect to a concept that actually makes them think about bigger issues that go beyond their own personal wants and needs. As a teacher I am constantly bombarded by people saying that student s just aren’t the same as they used to be, they just don’t try, or they are not motivated at all. Well, I can personally tell you that we have students at Salida High School that can hold conversation about concepts like how a perfect circle could represent true divinity in our world, or how the human perception of this world may just overlook dimensions that allow one to throw a baseball, defy universal physics as we know it, and hit the back of their own head. Students are just as motivated as they have always been; it is just harder to engage them in a world that has so many distractions.

And as I look around at the staff of Salida High School I can truly say that even though our walls are not new, our ideas still have the smell of new leather, even though our paint is not fresh, our creativity and innovativeness are as fresh as an afternoon thunderstorm, and even though our budget is in shambles, our connections are priceless.