Teaching means believing in your students
After 19 years of teaching, eight-grade physical science teacher Matt Banks has won District Teacher of the Year.
“It’s really humbling,” Banks said of winning the award. “There’s a lot more people I feel are more deserving than I am, but it’s nice to be recognized.”
Banks thanked his parents for encouraging him in his career, his childhood teachers for inspiring him and his fellow Gilmer teacher Mark Pettit for providing a great example.
Banks knew he wanted to be a teacher from an early age.
As he grew up, he developed a love for science. Getting to coach football was a bonus as well.
“I have a love for working with kids and also a love of science,” Banks said.
In his years teaching, Banks has learned the art of keeping the classroom interesting to each new group of kids.
“All kids want to learn,” he said. “You’ve got to figure out what motivates them.”
In his classrooms today, Banks said that hands-on techniques work best to keep kids engaged.
“It’s easy to get them hooked and teach them. They want to know why things work and why they do the things they do,” he said.
In the last few years, Banks has seen how technology has changed both the classroom and kids’ minds.
“When I first started teaching, there were no Chromebooks. There were very few kids that ever had a cell phone,” he said.
In some ways, technology has made kids more focused but less broad, Banks said.
“Whatever their interest is, they can deep dive into it and not see all the things around them,” he said.
But teaching is always about adapting to the challenge of the day. Every classroom is different. While you may learn many theories of education, it’s only when you get a classroom that you can really start learning to teach.
Good teachers improvise, experiment and improve over time.
“The biggest thing is building relationships with the kids,” Banks said. “Find out about the kids that you’re teaching, because a lot of times, there’s reasons why kids do this or that.”
A good teacher should understand a student as a whole person, Banks said.
Kids need encouragement, a listening ear and attention to achieve their best.
“Kids are people too,” Banks said. “Sometimes, the lesson that you’re teaching that day is not the most important thing.”