In the science halls of Lincoln Southeast High School, Taden King, the newest long-term biology substitute in the building, finds himself navigating new teaching methods and immersing himself in the Knight community. Although King will only be teaching Southeast students until April, he plans on making a significant impact in the classroom until biology teacher Amanda Studebaker returns from maternity leave.
Before King found himself substituting at LSE, he was committed to his passion for basketball during his time attending Lewis and Clark College. Eventually, teaching biology struck his interest so he uprooted his life in Idaho to settle in Nebraska with his wife.
“I’d always teach basketball camps and classes, and I decided I really liked biology, so I just blended them together,” King said.
During this time in college, King gained knowledge in numerous areas of biology such as how to manage classrooms, how to build tests and how to grade them effectively. He was also given the opportunity of shadowing teachers in order to gain experience and to recreate those classroom environments.
After college, King became a student teacher at East High School where he accompanied his mentor, Dr. Schaefer. He felt his mentor gave him crucial guidance and advice while simultaneously allowing him to learn and make mistakes on his own.
At East he taught ninth and tenth graders differentiated and non-differentiated biology. He believes his time spent student teaching gave him valuable insight on how to approach education in a way that works best for both his students and himself. Despite this, King felt he lacked the reputation that teachers acquire only with years of working in the education department.
“When you’re student teaching, the reputation of the teacher you’re with precedes you,” King said. “So I was with Dr. Schaefer and he’s been teaching for thirty years. The kids know who he is, he’s had all their siblings, that reputation is something I don’t have as a new teacher in my own classroom.”
In spite of lacking the reputation many other teachers around him had gained, King was still able to enjoy interacting and building relationships with students in the time he had.
To further ease the transition from student teaching to being a long-term substitute, King found numerous strategies that have proved to be effective throughout his teaching journey.
“I think the biggest thing is just trying to be a sponge and soak up as much information as I can,” King said. “I try to ask a lot of questions to the administration and I think the nicest thing is keeping a journal and writing things down, the things that go well, the things that don’t, so that I don’t keep making the same mistakes over and over.”
While these practices were beneficial to King’s transition, they were not the only factors that shaped his teaching today. His experiences as an adult and as a student remain one of the key influences on his daily teaching.
“I had some experiences early on in college of observing classrooms that shaped who I wanted to be as a teacher, ” King said. “I observed some teachers that I didn’t like how they handled student behavior or transitioning between activities. Still today, when I’m planning lessons I think about the teachers that I loved and what they did to make lessons fun.”
These experiences, as King mentioned, shaped his approaches to teaching. They also taught him how to create a classroom dynamic and lesson plan that sets students up for success based on what he believes works best for them. This dedication starts with a philosophy that lays the foundation for his goals and attitude as a teacher.
“My philosophy of teaching is, I try not to go in with presuppositions,” King said. “If students or teachers talk about how a student is hard to handle I try not to think about that and go in with a blank slate.”
This is crucial for King because it allows him to form his own perspectives and opinions on those around him rather than adopting someone else’s. This helps him prioritize his students and their learning environment. Therefore, King plans on benefitting his students to his fullest extent in the short amount of time he has.
For the rest of the spring semester, King’s influence will be implemented into Studebaker’s biology classroom and will leave a lasting impact on students. After King’s time at Southeast, he plans to continue his teaching career and implement his philosophy whenever he can.
