Taking on his first ever teaching role, Mr. Josh Slager is the latest Algebra I and IB Math AI SL I teacher at Meridian High School.
A new face to the high school, Mr Slager didn’t always want to be a teacher.
“My dream when I was a child was becoming a pro soccer player and owning my own restaurant,” he explained. He wasn’t far off his soccer dreams either, making it to collegiate level at Franklin and Marshall and then actually coaching Division 1 soccer. In fact, it was coaching soccer, which he had done throughout his life, that set him on the path to becoming a teacher.
“I’ve always enjoyed working with others since I started coaching my sophomore year,” Slager said. “I didn’t really know what I wanted to do my sophomore year, interviewed with some banks before realizing I had no interest in that, and eventually ended up taking a job teaching third grade science.”
Although he has left his professional soccer dreams in the past, the lessons Mr. Slager took from the sport and continued to enhance his teaching abilities and style.
“I think it taught me to let students kind of fail a little bit and then just say like ‘what happened?’, or ‘why do you think that happened?’ you ask them why in the classroom just as you would on the soccer field.”
Just like as a coach, Mr. Slager is taking less of a hands on approach, allowing his students to build independence, and prioritizing reps of mathematics, just as you would practice scoring goals.
“I think giving students opportunities just to do problems and practice as much as they can is important, and it is also an important characteristic that they need to take in order to be successful in college and in life. I’ll give them a lot of leeway and time for them to use as they best see fit”
One of his own students even provided a description of his class experience.
“You [Mr. Slager] show us how to do something and then you give us stuff to practice with, it gives us a lot of independence which is good because it teaches us to not be afraid to work by ourselves” Junior Valeria Wright commented, when asked about Mr Slager’s teaching style, supporting his own assessment of the class and what he has built.
Unlike other first year teachers, perhaps feeling the pressure and unprepared for this new level of responsibility, Mr. Slager remains confident. He likens his preparedness once again back to his experiences coaching and playing soccer.
“I think coaching set me up pretty well, like in general. Learning how to interact with people that are above you like parents can be intimidating, but since I’ve been coaching for so long I’m able to navigate that” he stated.
Certainly nothing could prepare you for teaching more than dealing with elementary school soccer moms, yet Mr. Slager also highlights his use of time management as a key lesson from soccer.
“Because I played a sport in college it really helped me develop these time management skills. Time is literally everything, from if you’re a teacher or if you’re working in a bank or doing whatever,” he expressed.
It’s clear Mr. Slager aims to use all the experiences at his disposal to create a highly effective learning environment, and he’s ready to hit the ground running in his rookie year of teaching.
