Hired as a leave replacement, Physical Education teacher Marcus Brown intends to make the most of his short amount of time by building relationships with students and preparing them for the dangers of the road. His contract may end in the middle of December, he said, but his relationship with his students and his lessons will last a lifetime.
Brown, having been teaching for five years and coaching for 10, is not new to a learning environment. For him, being a coach is valuable because he gets to see a different side of students.
“Getting to see the athletes in a different light,” Brown said, is what he likes about coaching. “Because you see the students, but you don’t really get to know the students while they’re in the classroom as much as you would as athletes. So you get to know them more as people as well as students and athletes, I get to see them for who they are, their personalities”
Brown worked in occupational therapy before his life took a turn and he decided to become a teacher. Since then, he got his masters at Montclair State and was a drivers education teacher at Mendham High School. At Mendham, he said, he prioritized building relationships with students and making his classroom a safe place for them.
“I was very close to pretty much the majority of students in the building, and they’ll come talk to you as more than just a teacher,” Brown said. “We talked about issues they may have in life, with relationships, at home, college decisions, and just being someone that they can talk to, that they’re comfortable with.”
As a driver’s education teacher, he said, he knows how difficult the course can be but also how important it is. His main goal is to make sure his students feel safe on the road and help them for their state test. By providing them with real-life scenarios and videos Brown helps students be accommodated and not scared for what’s ahead of them on the road.
¨It’s okay to be anxious or fearful,” Brown said. “Everyone goes through it, but with practice, as in everything else, it will be fine, in the future, they’ll be comfortable.”
