Mr. Long is an immensely silly guy. He teaches Geometry as well as Pre-Calc here at West Seattle High School, which can be stupendously boring subjects, but not the way Mr. Long teaches it. Mr. Long’s goal isn’t to convince his students that math is interesting, but he still finds ways to incorporate fun and humor into his classroom.
Before I took Geometry with Mr. Long my freshman year, I had always struggled in math and dreaded going to class. But in freshman Geometry, for the first time ever, I found myself looking forward to math class, and I never felt overwhelmed by work or an underlying pressure to succeed. I never worried that Mr. Long would stop respecting me or being nice to me if I didn’t complete an assignment, didn’t understand, or did my work slower than other people, because he’s so good at understanding students and building positive relationships with them. It’s an extremely valuable quality in a teacher for them to view students as equals, which Mr. Long perfectly emulates. When I asked him how he manages to create such a unique and healthy learning environment, he explained that it’s important that he shows students that he makes mistakes too, because he really is just a person like anyone else. He said, “Sometimes I ask students to help me in order to show them that I want their help and think that their help is worthwhile. I want them to be part of the classroom with me, because it’s not just my classroom. At the end of the day, it really is our classroom.”
Leigh Pixton, one of Mr. Long’s students, shared what she likes about Mr. Long and his class. She noted, “I think he does a great job of encouraging students to figure things out for themselves”, because Mr. Long allows them to gain independence and confidence in their work, while still remaining helpful. Leigh described him as a very kind and likeable person that shows genuine interest in students’ hobbies, which garners a degree of trust and understanding. In his interview, Mr. Long expressed how he thinks it’s important to have opportunities to talk about non-academic things in class because it keeps the learning environment light and easy-going. Commenting on his teaching methods, he said “I’m comfortable interacting with people. I’m not necessarily introverted, and I have the energy to walk around the classroom and yell at everyone.”
Another great thing about Mr. Long is how he clearly enjoys being a teacher, which is partly rooted in how he used to work in construction. He said, “A lot of my day is filled with more joy than being in an office or a construction site”, which is reflected by his enthusiasm in class. Mr. Long explained how working a job in construction, he used trigonometry every day. This background gives him a unique perspective on teaching math because he’s able to prove to students that what they’re learning can be useful. Mr. Long’s outside experience, friendliness, and boundless silliness makes him an essential and altogether irreplaceable member of the math department.
