By Chloe Miller
Holding a football Wednesday, Aug. 31, English teacher and football coach Michael Strack is excited to be teaching English again. “I think [Mill Valley] is a great, great place to teach, a great place to coach,” said Strack.
Former FOCUS teacher looks forward to teaching English
English teacher Michael Strack is excited to get to know a "bigger amount of the student population"
Mill Valley News: How did you decide to move positions within the school?
Michael Strack: It happened really late in the summer. It’s hard sometimes to find teachers but I taught English here previously and so even before the job opened, Dr. Holder and I had casual conversations about maybe someday moving back into and being in this classroom. Once the opportunity arose, I decided to go ahead and take it and so far it’s been good.
MVN: What are some differences between your position now and your position then?
MS: My position here before was more about monitoring kids and making sure that they maintained progress on different courses. Now I have a lot more daily instruction compared to just monitoring progress, it’s really delivering content now versus monitoring behavior prior.
MVN: What’s your favorite thing about your new position so far?
MS: I had a very small number of students that I really liked in my previous two years, but getting a chance to know a bigger number of the student population is probably what I’ll enjoy most.
MVN: What are your goals for your new teaching position here?
MS: One is to just get back in the groove of teaching English but ultimately, as an English teacher, I think one of my biggest goals in my entire career is to get [my students] to improve their writing.
MVN: What’s the first thing you want your students to know about you?
MS: I want them to know that I [am] actually approachable. If they need something, then I hope they eventually feel comfortable enough to come and talk to me because our job as teachers is to get them to learn and if something’s in the way of that I want to know.
MVN: What else would you like us to know about you?
MS: I love Mill Valley, obviously. I actually moved away for a couple of years and came back to the area. I’ve been very, very fortunate to find a job back here at the Valley. I think this is a great, great place to teach, a great place to coach, and hopefully a great place for students to experience high school.