This #TeacherTuesday, we’re featuring Mr. Cameron Swallen who joined Wooster in 2018 and serves as a Humanities Teacher, Dean of Students, Varsity Baseball Head Coach, and Assistant Boys Basketball Coach. We asked Mr. Swallen a series of questions to help our community get to know him better: What type of student were you in high school? I was a student who every adult in my school knew, mostly for the better. I was always very social and friendly to all. Around junior year I transitioned to being more serious as a student. This meant being more engaged in my academic classes, which worked out because I think towards the end of high school is when I had the most choice in terms of the classes I would be taking. Once I was given choice, I seemed to have more buy-in. How and/or why did you become a teacher? Throughout high school, I worked at Wakeman Boys & Girls Club in Southport, CT. I was always coaching, being a counselor, or running afterschool or weekend programming. I always seemed to excel at leading younger people. I figured teaching would be an extension of that. Some may know that my first real world job was umpiring professional baseball, so in the off season I substitute taught. Getting to the major leagues was always a pipe dream, so teaching was a logical backup plan. Who was your favorite teacher and why? This is a hard choice. Two that stand out to me are Mr. David Schulz and Mr. Ed Bengermino, who both taught physical education at Fairfield High School. Mr. Schulz was our basketball coach, and I was the student manager. Rather than attend practice, I would be sent around Fairfield County to physically swap VHS cassette tapes of games with other programs. I also had to cut out and record every single box score in the conference so Coach would know the free throw percentages of every opposing shooter. Coach and I recently exchanged emails about the Auburn - Florida Final Four game and the minutia of timeout strategy as it related to time and score. I think that attention to detail has transferred to my life as an adult, and naturally as a coach. Mr. Bengermino was a character. I recall my senior year was his final year teaching. Throughout the spring, I would attend his PE class during all of my free periods. There here was just so much to soak up from him. On my home desk, I have the softball, signed by Mr. Bengermino, that we played with from the very last period he taught. Sometimes I wonder if there is a student who will have a similar memory of me. If we had to ask you for your help with something, what would it be? Excel or Google Sheets. I love learning new ways to manipulate data. Writing formulas is a highly useful skill, and often all you need to know is to simply ask Google how to do it. In which other teacher’s class would you like to enroll, even for a day? “Everything is Better with Music” with Mr. Johnstone or “DLI Psychology” with Mr. Pannone. But in reality, when I walk into any class at Wooster, I always wish I could stay! What is your philosophy on teaching? We’ve recently been doing some thinking and learning on Neuroscience for Teachers. One thing that has spoken to me is the idea of allowing students to work through a “desirable difficulty.” It is really easy to jump in and solve a problem for a student, but it is better sometimes to step back and allow for a healthy struggle. Is there a quote or saying that you live your life by? Paraphrased from a quote on my mother’s refrigerator: “Every time you are met with unkindness or anger, it is only another opportunity to prove who you are as a person.” #woosterschool #communityatwooster #teachertuesdays (fb)

Our Early Middle School caught up with their Global Voices-ArtLink partners in Guatemala to learn about their lives through an art exchange program. Using various drawing and watercolor media, each student created a painting that illustrates a meaningful story from their lives. Wooster students were able to present and answer questions about their own artwork, while learning more about their friends in Guatemala and their artwork over video call facilitated by Global Voices and Ms. Acheson. Learn more about Wooster's Early Middle School, for students in 5th and 6th grade: https://www.woosterschool.org/middle-school/early-middle-school #woosterschool #globalcommunityatwooster (fb)