Coach Chance
According to students, “Coach Chance is the type to put you in your place.” He doesn’t take no for an answer and pushes students to their full potential. Coach Chance has been teaching at Wheeler for five years and coaching Varsity boys’ Soccer. He leads his team on the field and in the classroom. He is the senior AVID teacher and has been doing it for five years.
Maria (12) and Sara (12) both met Coach Chance when he did a “grade check” in their sophomore year AVID class. Maria retells, “he said, “You want to go to that college? Forget about it.” I thought, “he means business.” Sara claims, “I automatically knew he was the type of teacher to keep me in check, so I was excited for senior year.” Asiah (12) met him her senior year in her AVID class, “My first impression was that he was going to give it to you straight for sure.”
Coach Chance has impacted many academic careers, and when asked, Maria and Asiah agreed that “he keeps our class on track and accountable.” Sara also agrees, saying, “he has kept us accountable.” Destiny (12) claims his strength lies in “how he’s helped us throughout the college application process.” Being an AVID Teacher, He can give students one-on-one attention, advice, and help with the college application. He’s read essays, answered FAFSA questions, and been there for students.
Every teacher has different strong suits; Maria says Coach Chance “cares about his students; he cares about our emotional health.” Sara says “that he’s assertive, he is interactive with the class with his teaching. He’s personal; he relates it [the lesson] back to the students.” She adds, “He makes an effort to have a relationship with his students.” Similarly, Destiny agrees, “He makes lessons relatable to you to help us understand better.” She retold, “One time, a student didn’t understand what he was saying, so he put the government terms into makeup terms, and that student understood perfectly!” Asiah claims, “he gives great examples in class, which helps us understand way better.” Coach Chance regularly uses multiple means of example to cater to every learning type. He uses students in the examples, providing physical and visual representations of AP Government terms and cases that would otherwise be difficult for students to understand.
Students owe a lot to their teachers, and Maria claims she would thank Chance for “encouraging me to stay on top of scholarship applications.” Along those same lines, Destiny thanks him for the scholarships, and Sara thanks him for his support. She says, “When I told Coach Chance, I would possibly play lacrosse in college, he told me he’d try to make it to a few of my games. That shows what kind of teacher he is.” Asiah thanks him for “keeping it real; he’s very blunt.”
Every teacher provides a fresh perspective that may or may not cater to your learning needs. Overall, Coach Chance may seem like a tough guy on the exterior, but to his students, he creates an environment that inspires and protects their ability and drive to learn. His classroom has produced and will continue to produce well-educated and well-informed students to help them better understand the world around them.
