To some students, English class can be a bore and not interesting in the slightest. However, Mr. Christopher Engel, English, has developed an uncommon teaching method based off himself in an effort to intrigue students in the subject.
“[My teaching approach] is fluid. It changes from class to class. I look for ways to connect things to myself and try to bring them out to the students so that [they] see why it’s something to pay attention to. I’m not afraid to personalize things because that makes it more valuable for the audience. If it means something to me, then [the students] want to figure out why it means something, and then [they] tend to dig a little deeper. If I show excitement, then they get excited,” Mr. Engel said.
While teaching the class with a more personal touch, Mr. Engel enjoys directly talking to the class about a variety of topics. Even though they all may seem to be unrelated to the class, in the end it all comes full circle.
“I like to go out on tangents a lot. I like to talk about things that are loosely related. But the funny thing is, once we get to the end of the year, everything kind of connects and makes sense. This past AP test there was a question about morality which, about three or four weeks prior to that, we had a long discussion about how people don’t carry the same morality. [It was] loosely related to the specific subjects we were covering in class, but everyone had something to say when they answered that question on the test,” Mr. Engel said.
