Vestavia Hills Schools, Waguespack said he doesn’t have a simple teaching philosophy. But his experiences and the wisdom he gleaned from them all lead to a simple lesson he believes spells true success for students: Use what you learn. “I want them to see something in their daily lives that is connected to
Journal photo by Emily Williams
‘I ask them to pick about five topics that they are personally interested in and then find a way to connect it to the environment.’
Environmental science teacher Brad Waguespack was recently named Teacher of the Year in Secondary Education by the Vestavia Hills Schools system.
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Vestavia Secondary Teacher of the Year Brings Expeditionary Experience to the Classroom By Emily Williams
all in as he leads a classroom at his alma mater, Vestavia Hills High School. Recently named Teacher of the Year in Secondary Education by the
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Brad Waguespack has been party to a world of experiences in his teaching career and he’s reeling it
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something we have learned and have the ability to engage in a discussion about it,” Waguespack said. There are always lessons that simply follow the state curriculum, he said, but the bulk of his environmental science class can be connected to current environmental event topics. His ideas in the classroom are a melting pot of experiences from his own education, summers spent leading Outward Bound expeditions, time he spent working as an environmental research assistant, and an eclectic collection of teaching jobs that took him from the remote Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana to New England and back home to Birmingham. His time on the reservation was less about Native American culture and more about the effects class and poverty have on education. There was an 86 percent unemployment rate and tensions were ever-present between Native Americans and mixed-race students. “The reservation is very close to the site of Custer’s Last Stand and the Battle of Little Bighorn,” he said. “And on the other side there’s an Amish community. So, that tension was always present.” During his time teaching at the St. Labre Indian School, tragedies were common and students sometimes were away from school for up to a month, but then returned. Beyond learning the fundamentals of teaching, Waguespack’s favorite lesson from that time was an awareness of how life outside of the classroom affects a student. “You don’t know what a student is going through outside of school,” he said. “You don’t know what responsibilities or struggles they go home to, so you have to be respectful of that.” After 3½ years on the reservation, living off the grid and two hours away from modern city conveniences began to take its toll.
Waguespack accepted an opportunity to move back to New England and teach at an expeditionary school called The Renaissance School. “The curriculum blended what you learn in a classroom with what you learn on an Outward Bound expedition,” he said. Students are taken on expeditions in nature much like the ones Waguespack led during his summers with Outward Bound, engaging in mountaineering, canoeing/kayaking and backpacking. Learning occurs in every step, Waguespack said, from learning how to paddle properly to learning how to work together as a team to safely make it to the top of a mountain. Though his students at VHHS don’t always love the idea, his favorite method of teaching is through group projects, which teach communication skills much like expeditionary lessons do. “Sure, when they’re problemsolving they aren’t on the side of a mountain, but challenges don’t always look that physical,” he said. Waguespack tries to teach students how to properly deal with common communication problems that arise in most workplace environments, whether it’s a co-worker who doesn’t pull their weight or a difference in opinion. In a break from the group mentality, one of Waguespack’s favorite projects is to ask students to create their own TED Talk-style speeches that share an idea they feel could better the world. “I ask them to pick about five topics that they are personally interested in and then find a way to connect it to the environment,” he said. Topics range from “the effect of fashion on the environment,” to “does access to wooded areas affect learning.” “I love when I get to see students use their own creativity and apply it to what they have learned,” he said. Among the many cogs that make up his teaching philosophy is the drive to be the kind of teacher that he remembers from his own experience attending VHHS. “The ones that I remember are the ones that had high expectations,” he said. “They expected us to learn the curriculum and gave us the support to do it.” Waguespack firmly believes that students are capable of learning anything, and every form of failure is an opportunity to learn and grow. “Nobody should ever be afraid of failure, because people fail all the time and in different ways,” he said. “With effort and work and practice, you can get there. There’s real value in that growth.” ❖
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36 • Thursday, January 12, 2017
Laura Buder Named Alabama World Language Teacher of the Year
On Jan. 4, Vestavia Hills High School announced that German teacher Laura Buder has been named the Alabama World Languages Teacher of the Year. As the winner, Buder will travel in March to the Southern Conference on Language Teaching and will be in the running for regional honors. Buder qualified for the award after being named Alabama German Teacher of the Year in 2016 by the state chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German. “I was honored and humbled to receive this award because I know how hard world language teachers work around our state,” Buder said Wednesday. “I think it shows that our world language program at Vestavia Hills High School is really doing a lot of good things.” According to the Alabama World Languages Association, Burden was awarded for demonstrating excellence in language education and promoting world language teaching and learning. Buder earned national recognition in 2016 as one of three teachers in the nation chosen for the Teacher of Excellence Award from the German Embassy in Washington.
Brock’s Gap Hosts Toy Drive for YWCA
Brock’s Gaps Intermediate School’s BUCS and SCA Clubs held a toy drive recently, collecting more than 500 toys for the YWCA. Students in the club took a day to volunteer at the YWCA and host a “gift shop” with parents working as personal shoppers, gift baggers and wrappers. Students served as craft buddies, paired up with YWCA kids to craft takehome goodie bags and took pictures with Santa. The event was a coordinated effort between BUCS Club sponsors, counselors Coley Robichaux and Terri Coleman, and SCA sponsors Ashley Sparks and Stephanie Watson.