Master of Teaching
By: Ethan Adkins
Curt Sharp.
Curt Sharp is a teacher here at Jenks High School where he teaches an assortment of classes from Leadership, Government and U.S. History. However he has a rather unique background, he has traveled to Eastern Europe and Guinea to even South America. He even spent 6 years in the Philippines, where he taught multiple different subjects to a variety of cultures.
“I started off with middle school World Studies, World History, World Geography, and US History while I was over in the Philippines,” Said Sharp.
He uses the experience of teaching other cultures and subjects and brings them together to build a unique classroom setting. In one of his earlier lessons about Native American cultural differences, he uses a device that locals use in a village in Guinea as an example on how cultures can be lost in translation and simply misunderstood.
“Curt really brings some unique views on how to do education in the best way, he’s really good at bringing things he likes from different countries' education systems and incorporating them into his own classroom,” said Erik Olsen, a fellow history teacher within the history department.
Sharp has an ability to see how another person or place does something and learn from it and adapt to it. Overseas, when he noticed that his students would lose interest in a subject he would add music to random slides and make them play a form of musical chairs where he’d have them get up and change their sets to keep them engaged and focused.
Other teachers in the history department have noticed his flexibility and ability to adapt.
“Living abroad, you have to be very adaptable with what's going on around you,” said Olsen of his colleague. “You have to be able to roll with the punches, but when a teacher's plans don’t come off, sometimes students can smell it, but he’s very good at making and changing and does so really quickly.”
His slides are set up very abstractly. They aren’t just point after point, they include a mix of historical images, memes, music while also including all of the information needed to learn the subject. It also means that they can fit around any type of struggle, some kids prefer visuals and others prefer definitions. This allows him the flexibility to teach and explain the subject in a variety of different ways and not tying him down to just one.
“We talk all the time in the History Department, how a lot of what we do is passion driven, but he really does just love the art of teaching,” said Olsen
Sharp brings his passion for teaching out in all aspects of his classroom. Olsen has stated him as a master of teaching because he brings out the best in his students and his colleagues by pushing to bring their best to the classroom each and everyday.
