Mr. Mitchell
Why did you decide to go into education, and specifically the admin track?
I had really great teachers growing up, and they always looked like they enjoyed their jobs. School was a very safe place for me, home was too, I love learning and am a very curious person. I love gaining new knowledge, so school was a place I loved to be, so I said, let’s be here for the rest of my life. I did 10 years of teaching English in Bridgeport. I was a finalist for Connecticut State teacher of the year, so that got me thinking I could take my leadership out of the classroom to help teachers develop and be better educators. Eventually I want to go to the college level and help pre-service teachers get ready to enter the profession.
Why the Arts Academy?
Most of you know that I live in Bridgeport which is an hour away, but I came here because it is a very unique school, there is nothing like it in the state of Connecticut. I enjoy that it is very gay friendly and I can be who I am here and be a role model to a lot of the LGBTQ students here. I want them to see that you can also be in positions of leadership when you get older. I think that is an important thing to see, because I certainly didn’t see it growing up. I also love the arts. I used to direct plays and musicals at my old job, and I really wanted to direct a musical last year, but unfortunately it didn’t work out. This is the best place for me to be.
What is one trend you have seen either online or in the hallways that is confusing to you?
I still don’t understand tiktok videos. Honestly, when I see students filming these things, and the dances they do, y’all look ridiculous. I wish you could see yourselves doing it, and in ten years from now, you’re gonna be like, “what did I do?”. It just doesn’t make sense to me, but then I look back to the things I used to post when MySpace was cool, and I’m like, “what was I doing?”. We jump into technology so fast that we don’t realize the lasting impact it’s gonna have. I can’t wait for you guys to see the videos of whatever dances you’re doing in ten years from now.
