In my four years of high school I’ve gotten to know some teachers, and now that college is right around the corner and I’m not exactly sure what I’d like to do. So I interviewed a couple of teachers to see if they were in the same spot as I am in high  school, or did they have everything figured out. 

I was able to have a conversation with High school math teacher and JV soccer coach: Mr. Stock, aka Stock Money. Mr. Stock grew up in a family of teachers, mom and dad were both teachers, so you can say teaching is in his blood. 

I also spoke with Mr. Cutaia: business teacher and ex-softball coach. Stock and Cutaia had some similarities in their career path, Cutaia came from a family of teachers as well.

Stock grew up wanting to be a doctor until he found out how long of a process it is. He also wanted to be a pharmacist  until he worked in a pharmacy. He clearly didn’t enjoy his time there. 

Cutaia fell into the role of teaching. “Once I hit high school, I did a lot of my community service hours at my old elementary school and enjoyed working with students.  I guess you can say I kind of fell into the position.”

Starting off college, Mr. Stock went to be an engineer, little did he know that didn’t interest him and he soon started his teaching career. “I wanted to bring some excitement into school.” Stock did in fact have some teachers that inspired his teaching career. Interesting fact Mrs. Birkemeier was one of Mr. Stock’s teachers growing up and they are now colleagues.  

Cutaia also relates to Stock because Cutaia didn’t envision himself as a teacher. He grew up liking math and saw himself as an engineer as well. And also had some teachers who inspired his path… some better than others, but came out to be for this best to shape his teaching abilities. 

But then the tables turned for Cutaia; he then soon fell out of his love for teaching after a bad student-teaching experience. He then began to work at Paychex for a while where he decided that teaching was for him. “ It was while I was working at Paychex that gave me the itch to get back into teaching.”

Covid has obviously been a struggle in many ways. Some of the challenges Stock faces are the confusion between the blue, gold day schedule as well as students not being able to work in groups, since that is a way he has taught in the past.  

Mr. Stock is also a funny guy, he makes “dad” jokes, some may say dry jokes that are funny, but since Covid kids have to wear their masks and he can’t tell if the kids are laughing/ enjoying their time as he teaches. 

Along with Mr. Stock, Mr. Cutaia is struggling with not being able to see facial expressions. Cutaia also has a hard time with students not joining zoom and not taking advantage of office hours, which I think it is fair to say every teacher can relate to that struggle this year.

One of the main reasons Stock chose math was because engineering required math and science and since science is more specific for grade. It was a no brainer to choose math. It was more “marketable” and he could teach 7-12.

As mentioned before, Cutaia loved math and he was really good at it in high school. But what led him to the business route was a real working experience; this is where he fell in love with accounting and Marketing. 

Lastly we talked about “if they weren’t teachers what would they be?” Cutaia would have pursued his love for business to make him wealthy so he could, “drive fancy cars and travel”. On the other hand since Stock played soccer at the  high school and collegiate level, it would be his dream to be a NFL kicker. 

Now you know a little more about a couple of our high school teachers on how they relate, and how/why they became teachers, while you seniors are pondering upon career choices.