Coach King is the Heart of the Classroom
When someone asks me to talk about a teacher and how they impacted my life, only one person comes to mind. This teacher has taught me a lot, and even though he wasn’t here for my freshman or sophomore year, he will always be the one I talk about. This teacher and coach is Jamie King.
Coach King is a Geometry and Math Models teacher who does everything in his power to make sure you succeed in his class. He makes sure you have a better understanding of the unit we’re talking about. Whether it is you emailing him that you might be confused or walking up to his desk asking for help, he will stop everything he is doing and show you step by step how to do the work. Even when you don’t turn in an assignment on time and eventually just let the due date slip through your mind like I did, and give him a lame excuse just to turn it in late, he never wants to see his students fail.
Failing in general was never OK with Coach King. He always called me up to his desk, pulled up a chair by me or talked to me before I got into his class, where he would always tell me what I was missing if I didn’t know. He always helped me with any assignment I had. Even when he was occupied doing school things, he made time to at least talk to me about what I needed to get done.
Missing days was never an option for Coach King unless he had to. If he was leaving during the day and you saw him before he left, he would break the news about him not being in class, and you would sigh and say, “Coach King, why?” Before any of his classes, he always stood outside of his class and talked to his students or athletes, anyone who knows Coach King interacted with him. It could be a quick dab up from the athletes or just a nod or saying hi to him while you walk by his class.
Coach King is the type of teacher you want to have. Even if your friends aren't there, it would be okay because he never lets his class just sit in silence. He always had a joke to tell or a goal to accomplish, and that was to at least make one person, if not everyone, smile or laugh. You could give him the worst attitude, and he would still try to find a way to just talk to you.
Being excused for the whole day might be a blessing to some students because they would not want to go to any of their classes and get a break from the schoolwork they would have to do, but even when I was excused, I made one exception just to be sure I was in Coach King's class. His class made the school day something to look forward to. When I was in his class, even when I had the worst day in the morning, he would call me over to his desk to let me talk and distract me from the fact that I was upset.
While I had Coach King as a teacher I remember him asking every Friday if me and my best friend were going to the football game so the next day we could all debrief and give our thoughts and opinions on the game and even when they didn’t do so good and the night of the football game was high in emotions for coaches he still came to school the next day and was respectful about everything he had to say from the previous night.
Wrapping up my Junior year of high school, I had so many absences, failing grades, and made a lot of mistakes, but I could never forget the long lessons Coach King gave me and how they will stick with me for the rest of my time here. I could never forget the tears I wiped away because I was laughing so hard I was crying while he laughed at me, but with me sometimes, I could never thank him enough for helping me get through this year when I never thought I would, but he made it possible for me to do.
