More Than English
“I hope that students walk away from my classes seeing themselves as writers and thinkers, so that they will be able to confidently move their way into a writing task,” Mr. Purcell expressed.
Students engage in thoughtful and interesting conversations, partaking in skillful, detailed writing, and most of all, learning to communicate. These are all skills that 11th and 12th-grade English teacher Mr. Purcell hopes to improve in his classes on a day-to-day basis.
“I have been teaching for 17 years. I had been teaching part-time and decided that I wanted to teach high school. JA really appealed to me,” mentioned Mr. Purcell.
The studious environment of JA has been a great pull for Mr. Purcell.
“The students are amazing,” Mr. Purcell expressed. “One of the things that has kept me here is that I get to teach students who want to learn, want to think, and want to get better at writing. I get to experiment, and that has kept me from getting bored.”
Working at Jefferson Academy for so long allows for many wonderful memories to be created.
“All my favorite memories are graduations and watching the students whom I had worked with for about two years move on into the world, and watching students make discoveries about writing and being excited about that,” stated Mr. Purcell.
Outside of graduation and inside the classroom, there are many parts of Mr. Purcell’s classes that improve students' writing skills.
“Peer reviews are some of my favorite memories in the classroom,” Mr. Purcell shared, “I love listening to people get excited to talk about ideas and writing and that sort of thing.”
Many students enjoy Mr. Purcell's positive environment.
“I like the structure of Mr. Purcell’s class. I like that we learned about the structure of sentences…I don’t feel like I’m being overwhelmed with grammar rules, but I also like that I’m not missing out on anything specific on the papers,” expressed junior Holly Hartmann.
Similarly, Mr. Purcell has expressed his opinion about his experience working with high schoolers.
“For me, it's getting to watch students better understand themselves as people and as thinkers, being able to teach students to develop their voice so they can express themselves clearly, that is the most rewarding part,” Mr. Purcell mentioned.
Because of this rewarding experience, there are many things that he hopes students take away from his class.
Mr. Purcell expressed: “I hope that students walk away from my classes seeing themselves as writers and thinkers, so that they will be able to confidently move their way into a writing task.”
