This year, Dee-Mack’s staff gained three new faces. Mr. Hasty, who teaches math, Ms. Tompkins, who teaches English, and Mr. Finney, who teaches computers, all joined our staff and, from the looks of it, it’s been positive all around. In talking with each of these teachers, they all voiced their love for Dee-Mack after being here for a month already. The common point between all of them was that the students are the best part of the school. They all agree that everyone has been very welcoming and friendly, and the new teachers and new students alike are having a great time learning about the school together. Mr. Finney expressed the students’ kindness by saying “Kids who have never had my class yet, and kids who may never have my class, are making sure that they’ve made me feel like I’ve been a part of the staff for years.” Mr. Hasty described a similar feeling with the students. He used the word “community,” saying “Everyone knows each other, everyone’s friendly with each other, and you don’t really get to a point where a person is an ‘outsider.’ Really everyone’s connected in some way, shape, or form, and there’s not really one group vs. another.”

Although the teachers are new to Dee-Mack, none of them are new to the teaching game. Before she came here, Ms. Tompkins was student-teaching at Tremont High School while going to school for an education degree at ISU. Mr. Finney, similarly, was Athletic Director and Dean of Students at Tremont. In addition, he had taught at Quest and Morton, along with coaching football and bowling at Morton. Mr. Hasty, though, was spared of spending time at Dee-Mack’s biggest rival, Tremont, as he taught at Peoria High School for 3 years before coming to Dee-Mack. Their own teachers and coaches have played a large role in all of their lives. Mr. Hasty, for example, said that his biggest inspirations were his high school math teacher, who spent time outside of class to help figure out the answers to students’ difficult questions, as well as his physics and chemistry teacher, who had quit teaching even though he enjoyed it very much, because he had gotten an offer for another job that would better provide for his family. Ms. Tompkins’ father is a teacher who, along with her mother, is her biggest inspiration due to the hard work that he put in to get to where he is today. Initially, Ms. Tompkins’ father being a teacher discouraged her, as she wanted to “forge her own path,” so she originally went to ISU as a nursing major. However, she switched to an education major in her sophomore year. Mr. Finney’s biggest inspiration is his high school basketball coach. He said, “He was a guy that would yell at you and correct you and make sure that you knew that you needed to change what was happening around you, but then within five minutes he reassured you and made you feel like you were family, and that everything you did mattered to him, good or bad.”

Despite these inspirations, none of the new teachers originally planned on going into education. Ms. Tompkins’ reason was her father being a teacher. Mr. Finney only got into education at 31 years old, after coaching for a while and realizing that it would be easier if he was a part of the education system. Mr. Hasty, when asked if he thought he was going to become a teacher, replied with “I didn’t really think, like in general.” Even though they didn’t know it was going to be their path from the start, we are all glad that these excellent people have joined the Dee-Mack community, and we are excited to have them for the years to come. This is especially true considering their stories of teaching moments in the past. Ms. Tompkins told a story of when she was student-teaching at Tremont and her mentor teacher left to go make copies. While she was gone, the fire alarm went off, so Ms. Tompkins had to get all of the students out of the building without knowing the plan at all. Mr. Hasty pointed out the times when he was teaching and an observer came in to watch the class, but his lesson for the day took the students an unexpectedly short amount of time, so Mr. Hasty had to go over each question individually to make himself busy until the class ended. Last but certainly not least, Mr. Finney told a bizarre story in an strangely nonchalant way, saying very calmly, “When I was at Quest I had a kid basically try to attack me with a stapler. Yeah, he’d had a bad day.” As these new teachers settle into Dee-Mack, let us continue to welcome them into the community with kindness and respect, and in absolutely no circumstance, attack any of them with a stapler.