How Mr. McCormack changes his classroom

Once new sophomore English teacher John McCormack learns your name, he guarantees he won’t forget it. 

McCormack, a graduate of The College of New Jersey, remembers sitting in a writing class his junior year of high school, imagining how he could express himself through writing as a career. After going down this path, McCormack has worked as a teacher ever since. Three teaching jobs later, he now calls West Essex his new home and is excited to see what this year’s students bring to the classroom. 

“You’re going to forget who I am before I forget who you are,” McCormack said. “I like to share that because the classroom is important. It’s not just, like, me teaching, I want you to learn–it’s about us kind of learning together.”

After shaking off the first day nerves and adjusting to what he called an unusual block schedule, he plans his daily Do Now and gets into his teaching mindset. He’s a firm believer in starting the class off with a bang, some conversation that really gets them ready for discussion. 

Dreams and fears are the themes that his classes are studying now, relating them to “A Long Way Gone” to help his students recognize the luxuries that they have. Another strategy he applies to teaching is learning certain personality traits that his students have so they could relate with the novel or text they’re reading. 

“When I teach in class, I like to sort of get a sense of students like personal thoughts and how they can be applied to the characters in the book,” McCormack said.

McCormack said he hopes to have a great upcoming year at West Essex through getting to know his students even more and helping them learn something beneficial to carry along with them.