People often say teaching is a calling.
For new AVID and English teacher, Jordan Cockle, he says it is a calling he heard loud and clear.
“It is not that I want to be a teacher necessarily, it is that I have to. It is like my duty and my responsibility to be a teacher, it is not a want but a need to, a feeling within myself,” Cockle said.
Cockle says his time as AVID tutor influenced his career choice.
“Seeing the difference AVID was making in the students’ lives was kind of my ‘aha’ moment but the sum of all the things I was seeing, to really push students to be better than what they thought they were and those moments just added up,” Cockle said.
For both his AVID and English students, Cockle says he has goals in mind.
“I want to challenge preconceived notions but I want to do it in a constructive way,” Cockle said. “I think there are important life skills you learn, in English especially, and I want to be there for that. I want to change the way students view the world because sometimes we get stuck in our ways and how we view the world because you grew up that way and there are so many things outside of Puyallup, WA and I want to expose students to that.”
He was adamant about what he wanted students to know.
“We as teachers are here to support students and help them succeed in life,” Cockle said.