One Kendall Yoder came to RHS this year as a first year teacher. He has taught for the entirety of last semester and has gotten some good experience in as a teacher. As one of his students, I can attest to his natural teaching skill, but what more can we learn about one of RHS’s newest teachers?

“I have technically gone to three colleges,” says Yoder himself. “I started at Western State University. I went there for a year and a half, then I went and got my Undergrad Degree from Northern Colorado, and then I got my teaching license at Metro State University.”

Aaron Shells, a senior here at RHS, states what he enjoys about Yoder’s English 12 class, saying, “He’s outgoing, makes the class fun, and actually connects with the students in order to teach them.”

Though Yoder says he “doesn’t have a specific teaching technique yet,” he definitely has something down in the department of teaching well.

Now that we know Yoder’s humble beginnings, how did he get to RHS?

“Well, it kinda took me awhile,” says Yoder. “ but five years after I got my Undergrad Degree is when I went back to school to get my teaching license, so that program took me about two years, and I finished that program last December (2013). I student taught at Sheridan High School in Denver, and then last spring (2014) I substitute taught, and over the summer (2014) I applied anywhere and everywhere. Rangeview was, I think, my third interview and it was the one that I got.”

For those of you not counting, it seems to have taken about eleven years for Yoder to get through his schooling alone, then about another year to end up here at RHS.

Yoder says, “There wasn’t really a defining moment; both my parents were teachers at one point in their lives, and I always knew that it was something I was interested in, but I didn’t seriously pursue it until I met my wife, my then girlfriend who was a teacher and has been a teacher for five years now. Just being around her every day and seeing what she did at her job was what I guess you could say kind of inspired me to pursue it.”

If there’s one thing about people, it’s that they change their minds, a lot, most of all where careers are involved. Tons of college students change their major once or even twice before they graduate. Is RHS’s Mr. Yoder the same way?

“Ideally, I would always be a teacher,” says Yoder. “I would love it if I was a teacher for the next thirty years. I’m only licensed for teaching middle school and high school,” Yoder states. “Since I got my start in a high school, I see this more as my comfort zone. If I were to say, teach at Rangeview for a few years and then suddenly transfer over to a middle school, it would almost be like starting brand new.”

Yoder continues to say that he sees himself teaching in high school.

RHS has had many new teachers over the years, every year having at least two new teachers for the students to break in. Yoder, being one of the most recent additions to the RHS staff and it being later in the year, proves how RHS treats new teachers.

“RHS has been a great place for me to begin my teaching career. There is a lot of support here, especially because there is a larger staff. I’ve met a lot of great teachers.”

To Yoder, the school has treated him very well, and he wants to stay for the next year and for as long as the school will have him. Though Yoder attests to struggling as a teacher, he looks to become the best teacher that he can be, and hopefully his experiences at RHS can get him as close as possible.