Staff Spotlight

Staff Spotlight is Lockport’s way of bringing recognition to staff members who stand out to students, and who truly make a difference! Shining a light on these staff members helps take their acts of kindness and pay it forward by sharing with the community. Our first staff spotlight for the year:

Lockport’s Latest Staff Spotlight!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dan Johnson: Digital Pathways teacher at Central Campus

by: Katie McNulty and Isabella DeSchaaf

1. What is your favorite part about being a teacher?

It would probably be helping you become less helpless and become better versions of yourselves. When you’re younger and have a lot handed to you, like teachers and family being able to provide guidance and help, you feel less helpless. It is very rewarding to me because at the end of the day we mainly have ourselves and our close friends as support, and it’s a good feeling when you can be self-sufficient.

2. Did you always want to become a teacher?

Not necessarily, no. I had a lot of other random academic interests as well that stemmed from what I do teaching wise. It wasn’t necessarily my first career thought or choice, but I never thought that there would ever be a moment like this interview where people would actually be interested in me. It is interesting to see how you pivot in life when things go unexpectedly. So, this is definitely not the first career option for me, but certainly something that I am very happy I found my way into because of how rewarding it is.  

3. Who has influenced you the most and in what way?

From a teaching standpoint, it was my junior English teacher, which is funny because I now joke that English would be one of my least favorite subjects to take now, except for the fact that I like reading. He was the first person that really called me out on low-key being an academic weapon. In high school, I always enjoyed writing and I was good at it. I would write papers and when I really cared about something he would get the best work out of me. When he would make me write about things that I didn’t really care about, then the writing was just not as good. I remember my last paper that I wrote for him was about this book called “The Invisible Man,” and I was the only one that got an A on the initial draft. I can still to this day remember his cursive writing and I can picture it saying “Mr. Johnson, you dazzle me.”  

4. What made you want to become a volleyball coach?

I would say it largely stemmed from when I was your guy’s age. My freshman year coach was an older guy who had never played the sport. He never really cared and was just collecting a paycheck. Then my sophomore/junior year coach (who knew what she was doing to an extent) was someone who I would ask in-depth questions about things related to the game. Not questioning her rudely, but asked why we would do things certain ways while playing. But, she was not a fan of my questions, which frustrated me as someone who was both curious and athletic. I told myself that if I ever get into coaching I would want to be the type of coach who would not shy away from tough questions. 

5. If you were to have a walkout song, what would it be?

Probably “Enter Sandman”. It’s a song they play at Virginia Tech University when they run out onto the field, because my brother-in-law went to Virginia tech and loves the football team there. 

6. Favorite hobbies outside of school?

Outside of school I coach volleyball for the school, and at an outside club too. Outside of school, I immensely enjoy being active like playing golf and tennis 4-5 days a week. I also enjoy lifting weights and enjoy hanging with  friends and family in my free time. 

7. If money wasn’t an issue, what would be your dream job?

I think the stereotypical male answer is some form of professional athlete. It would probably be tennis because it is something with a balance of pushing myself physically and is also interesting one v. one when you have no one to blame but yourself. A more professional answer would also be to become a music producer and be a mash up D.J.

8. What is your dream travel destination?

Australia and New Zealand are some, but also Croatia, Greece, that kind of area in Europe. Everyone that I know that has gone to Greece has loved it, and I happen to have a reasonable amount of Greek friends. But I’ve heard amazing things about Serbia and Italy. I would say that type of European region and bounce around and see where the wind takes me.

9. If you were asked to do a TED talk, what would your topic be?

Probably something about athletics, like a combination of athletics, lifting, mobility, and longevity of movement. I think, fortunately, you guys’ generation seems to be a lot more understanding of knowing that sitting down on our phones as much as we do is not good for us for a variety of reasons. Another topic would be trying to stop your brain from focusing on multiple things at once. Having inner tenseness within us can keep us up at night, making us unable to sleep well. You don’t feel this but when you are tense at a muscular level it can keep you up at night and cause stress, so I’d probably talk about that.

10. What is the best advice you have been given?

Don’t waste your time. It annoys me when I’m tired at the end of a long day, and I don’t do stuff that I planned, then I get mad and immediately think of it the next morning. Setting clothes out the night before and making sure your lunch is made can make you less stressed, and you’ll invest your short-term time so your long-term time is either something that you get to enjoy more easily or that you’re not stressed about. Whenever you plan out your day or mark things down, you’re naturally just a little bit less stressed out by planning out and getting things done ahead of time.

11. What advice would you give to a student who is not sure what type of college they are looking for?

I would say you’re very well suited to look at elective classes that we have and think back to any time that you’ve done classes that aren’t just academic. That’s why I really enjoy teaching digital pathways; it can expose you to different content areas. I always tell my students “it’s not like you’re going to automatically know based on a nine week course what you want to do.” A number of kids that I’ve had like 3D printing or have enjoyed some kind of art can take that up in the future. I feel like I can confidently say that there are a lot of things out there and school shouldn’t just be having to work for 7 hours straight and constantly be doing academics. It should be about learning what you want to do in your life by taking elective classes or thinking about your future. 

12.  What is your biggest pet peeve?

As a teacher, I would say a lack of perspective. This can mean a lot of different things. For example, on my way to a girls volleyball playoff game, I was driving and was in an intersection, and there was an ambulance coming through the intersection with the lights flashing. I was second in line and the ambulance was coming down. It was starting to come through the intersection, going straight, then this jerk whips in front of the ambulance and the ambulance lays on its horn and then the guy pulls over. I thought “you don’t know who’s in that ambulance; you don’t know what’s going on.” Granted, this guy could have had an emergency of his or her own, you don’t know what’s going on, but my guess is they were just not paying attention. The short answer would be “just be patient,” which comes up in school a lot when I’m teaching a lot of students too. When I have to repeat the same set of instructions to a student over and over again, I have to step aside in the moment and be like, the student might not know.

13. What book or movie has influenced you the most?

I would say “Moneyball” and “The Big Short”. The author of those two books is the same author, who’s also my favorite author, Michael Lewis, who writes about sports a lot. He also wrote this amazing book on COVID and the American response to the pandemic, and another very good book on Sam Pinkman Freed, who started up one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges. But those two books, The Big Short and Moneyball, were about being analytical with all of these facets in life. I didn’t know that this type of writing existed as someone growing up who always was interested in the economy. I thought it didn’t make sense, and I wanted someone to look at some of these issues and be like here’s why, which is what these books did.

14. What is one thing you hope to accomplish in your life? 

Besides becoming very wealthy, something more interesting would be becoming the Women’s US Olympic volleyball coach and winning a gold medal. That would be really cool. When you see an Olympian and the emotion that the Olympics have, and all the hard work that they put in, along with the accomplishments that they want to achieve, it’s something very beautiful. To have everybody in your country rooting for you and being proud of you, it’s just something in life that many people don’t get to experience but that would really check a box for me in my life.