Starting our 2024 school year, Lake Middle High School welcomed Mr. Aaron as our newest and youngest English teacher. He’s enthusiastic about teaching sophomores in English 2 and seniors in English 4.
While majoring in education at Kent State Stark campus for his first 2 years and main campus for the later half, he shadowed a number of schools including Revere High School, Tallmadge Middle School, Field High School, and Crestwood High School.
He originally thought he wanted to be a physical therapist but after a career tech program he did his junior year of high school, he decided that wasn’t the path he wanted to take. During the middle of his senior year he made the decision to become a teacher.
“My main goal to teach is that I want to have a direct impact on people that are going to create change, so in theory I’m making positive change in the world myself. But I think that if I can teach young students how to view the world in a positive manner then that way I can allow them to make more change and more change and affect as many people as I can.” stated Mr. Aaron
He did not find out this job was for sophomores and seniors until he got to his first interview, and was worried he was going to teach eighth grade and sophomores. Even though this is his first time teaching seniors he wanted this opportunity because he thinks his age helps him connect to students in a way that other teachers can not. The age difference between his closest coworker is the same as the age difference between his students so this gives him a unique perspective to relate to his students more. Some people expressed doubts in his ability to teach since he is so young but he sees his age as only a positive aspect when it comes to building relationships with his students.
Since he’s only been out of school for the past few years this also gives him the insight of what life as a senior is like in modern times, he shared, “You guys are going onto your next step, you guys are graduating soon, you know? I directly know what it’s like to have just graduated. I know what the world’s like out there for a college student, or I know what the world’s like, I have friends that are doing trades and things like that, I know what that’s like.” Since he knows the life of a senior and what they have the energy or motivation to do he can more actively make decisions for the class with everyone’s best interest in mind.
Mr. Aaron shared he may not have been as respected in the beginning of school but he took the first few weeks to establish his authority over the class while showing he can still be lenient. He hopes that his ability to connect with students stays throughout his career, even as he ages further away from the age of his students.
When asked if he would ever change the grades or classes he teaches, he expressed he doesn’t want to change anything and would like to keep teaching sophomores and seniors. He loves teaching seniors because there’s a sense of freedom with what he can teach and how he handles the class. Seniors are old enough to have in-depth, adult conversations about hard topics the younger students do not have the knowledge or maturity to talk about. Sophomores are old enough to handle in-depth, adult conversations, but they still have a passion for learning and aren’t as burnt-out as the seniors.
Mr. Aaron’s favorite lesson he teaches is the intro to rhetoric, although he thinks the senior papers are integral to our learning process. When asked if he thinks they’re necessary he said, “I love research papers, I think there is value in defining your opinion and backing it up. If you boil down a research paper to those two things, you can apply that to almost anything outside of this building.” He thinks that his job at its core is to teach students how to support themselves.
Being a first time teacher comes with highs and lows, Mr. Aaron shared that his favorite part about teaching so far is just being straight up with his students and being able to let them know if he’s having a bad day or if something big happened over the weekend. Although, he’s nervous being vulnerable with his students will affect them negatively and hurt their ability to learn. Everyday when he comes to school all his worries and concerns just melt away and he’s left with only his thoughts about school. It makes him forget about all the negatives going on outside of school.
Mr. Aaron’s least favorite part about teaching is being a first year teacher and not having any frame of reference. Creating lesson plans and grading takes up most of his social life, while still trying to figure out how to make a daily agenda. He’s still a work in progress for basically everything that is not exactly standing in front of the class teaching.
Mr. Aaron may not have everything figured out yet but he is passionate about helping his students and forming connections that other teachers can not.
