Teaching wasn’t on Jimmy Lanphear’s radar.
But when some trusted leaders told Lanphear he might be a good teacher before he graduated high school, he thought maybe he could teach while he was working to become an athletic director.
Math, on the other hand, was just something he was good at, so he decided to pursue teaching math at the high school level.
But all of that changed when Lanphear began student teaching.
During the year when he and his college peers were in their student teaching practicum, Lanphear was placed in a seventh grade and ninth grade class.
“I just had a phenomenal cooperating teacher, and I just fell in love with the middle school there,” he said. “I became very disinterested in high school.
For five years after college graduation, Lanphear taught at Southview Junior High School in Danville before coming over to teach sixth-grade math at Mahomet-Seymour Junior High School.
“My big goal for sixth grade is just to have sixth-grade students be interested in math when they leave,” he said. “Math always gets a negative to it. Everyone seems to hate math; I just want them to leave sixth-grade enjoying math.”
“I’ve learned over the years, it’s not even about what skills they have, it’s just about whether or not they enjoy working with numbers.”
Lanphear said if students leave his classroom hating math, then more than likely, their dislike for math will continue throughout subsequent years.
During Lanphear’s first year at MSJHS, the school functioned under a junior high model where students went from class to class without any coherent learning environment.
But four years ago, MSJHS went to the middle school model Lanphear was familiar with. Within the middle school model, students in each grade are split into two groups; at MSJHS those groups are referred to as the “orange” and “blue” groups.
The students within each group are then assigned to three teachers: an English, Math and Science teacher who collaborate together to provide assistance to each student while incorporating a cross-curricular curriculum.
“With the junior high model, we rarely got to meet with other teachers and we didn’t have common plan times,” Lanphear said. “I just felt like I was on an island, but not we have a team and can work together.”
“I think it’s helped us plan better and meet everyone’s needs by being more efficient with how we run things. And our communication has been better since then.”
Lanphear said the middle school model helps teachers see the bigger picture for the students’ education.
“I know exactly what is going on in Mrs. Crawford’s and Mrs. Zimmerman’s classes because we talk about it,” he said.
Through the middle school model, junior high teachers are also able to keep tabs on and build relationships with students in ways they were not able to before.
Lanphear said in a time when teenage-students are often feeling lost and out of place, being part of a team helps to give them security and community. He also believes that the consistency of seeing the three teachers throughout the day opens up communication in a way that was missing before.
And for Lanphear, relationships with the students is what makes being a teacher so exciting.
“The kids are awesome. I’ve just had so many positive relationships with the students over the last five years.”
