When I walked into Mr. Howell’s office in the upper school admin suite, he was working on one of the fifteen college recommendations that he had agreed to write. When I asked details about how he was to write all of those he proceeded to tell me that he writes “quality over quantity.” He only takes on student recs for students he knows really well because he wants to be able to write meaningful recommendations.
Mr. Howell, who has taught math here for five years, took on the role of 11th-grade dean this year.
Today, he had no classes to teach because of the letter day that it was, but he was using the time wisely because most of the recommendations were due sometime in September. He had already finished five of the fifteen and was hoping to finish more during this time.
When speaking with him, it sounded like Mr. Howell had a fun, rather relaxing summer. He had the opportunity to experience a “full-blown teacher summer, which is a major perk of the job because you're not actually supposed to be working,” he told me. With that time, he was able to be with his daughter, watch new movies, and listen to his favorite music, 90’s rap!
His daughter, a very cute three-year-old, had been begging them to go to the beach all last year so he, his wife, and his daughter took a trip to Hilton Head, South Carolina. They spent their days on the beach, which his daughter especially enjoyed. He said that they spent all day every day on the beach because she loved it so much. Following this trip, he and his wife were able to take a childless trip to Asheville, North Carolina. Instead of spending time on the beach, he could enjoy the mountains.
When he wasn’t traveling, he was getting into some new shows. “I never watched Seinfeld because I could never relate when I was a kid,” he told me. He finally understood what everyone else was raving about. He watched all nine seasons of it this summer. In terms of more current shows, he also watched Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel.
While he was able to set school aside for most of the summer, he did have to take a short “deans business trip” near Massachusetts for a couple of days. This got him very excited to step into his new position as eleventh grade dead and be able to experience Lovett from a different perspective.
When he finally returned to school, he was very excited to fulfill this new role and also be able to continue teaching students. He has found the “change in pace” easy to adjust to. “I am really thankful to be working with the admin team that was already in place,” he says. “Already they have just been very helpful in terms of getting into this new role.”
Still, there are new challenges. For example, “you have to communicate with parents when you don't know the kid,” he says, something he didn’t have to do when he was only teaching.
Ultimately, he likes his dual role. “The part that makes me the happiest is working with the students,” he said. “Even the courses that I teach this year I feel like, ‘Alright I can put away the dean role for a couple of hours and just get back into teaching pre-calc, interacting with students in that fashion.’”
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up