Have you ever had an ELA teacher that’s also a coach and a history teacher? Mr. Newcott is that teacher for me. He taught ELA but tied it in with history, sports, and interesting projects. He was also funny and could connect with students. I believe Mr. Newcott should be the next Educator of the Year.

Mr. Newcott was my baseball coach as well as an avid sports fan. Whenever he could, he would try to tie sports in with ELA. That made me enjoy his class even more. He was also funny and engaging. He would tell funny stories of when he was a kid that a lot of us could connect with. He could also play the guitar pretty well.

Mr. Newcott also would tie ELA into history, my favorite subject. We would read speeches from people like MLK and Malcolm X and analyze them. But before that he would give in depth background info of the time period and what was happening during the time the speech was made. He would go the extra step to help us better understand the speech and give us additional information.

He also had interesting projects that either opened my eyes to an issue or helped me learn about something that changed America. We had a persuasive writing piece, and he said we could do anything that we believed needed a change. This opened my eyes to the issue of NCAA and their refusal to pay players. The project about America was about events that changed pop culture; that was very interesting.

 Not only did Mr. Newcott keep me interested in ELA  with sports and jokes, but he cared about his students. He was interested in where I was going to highschool instead of just acting as if I was just another student in his class. An ELA teacher, a sports fan, and a jokester is a great way to define a great teacher in Mr. Newcott, the next Teen Ink Educator of the Year.