Mr. Steven Files

We interviewed Mr. Files, and we were thankful to be interviewing him since he's so busy helping everyone in the school. We found out many things we may have never known about him, and we probably would not have learned if we had not interviewed him.

Mr. Files comes from the very rural and small town of Raynham, Massachusetts. He says it is mostly farms, but there are two stoplights, one hardware store and two churches. Mr. Files is one of four siblings, all boys, who grew up on a farm.

Before, he was a lawyer for twelve years, but he hated it, so he decided to be a fourth grade teacher because he loves working with kids. Then, he was asked to teach middle school and was not so sure about it. He had never really thought about teaching middle school, hearing that it was so hard to teach, but he took the job anyway. Mr. Files was invited to teach lower school again after teaching a year in 7th grade, but he said no, since he, surprisingly, loved the middle school.

Mr. Files told us he came to Parker because it is a fascinating school. He said he wanted to be part of this community at Parker because he loves and believes in the school. Mr. Files said that he wanted a change in his life, so he wanted to be part of Parker. He told his husband that he wanted to quit practicing law to be what he wanted. Mr. Files wanted to be a teacher. On his first day of teaching, he was nervous because he said that the job was so important to him.

Mr. Files told us that his biggest supporter is his husband, David. David was the one who encouraged Mr. Files to quit his past job as a lawyer and become a teacher, since that's what he wanted to be. Another amazing supporter of Mr. Files is Mr. Novick. Mr. Files says Mr. Novick gives him confidence and always appreciates what he does.

“The weekdays are hectic in the morning,” said Mr. Files. He has two daughters, a four-year-old (Noa) and a seven-year-old (Avi). The first thing he does is he checks in with the grades and sees if there is is anything they need (such as iPads or computers). He says every day is different for him, and that's what he loves most. “The job chose me,” he said.

Mr. Files told us that he doesn't have much free time because he works five days a week and has two daughters. He likes to play with his daughters on the weekend and loves to see musical theater shows like Hamilton, Sweeney Todd and many others. He said that he can ever get enough of it. Mr. Files loves biology, but he didn't want to go to medical school. He says he was always in the music department in college. Mr. Files started taking cello lessons with his daughter, and continued even after she stopped. He also loves skiing and movies.

When asked what the most challenging part of his job was, Mr. Files replied that there are so many rapid changes in technology that it's difficult to keep up. “Even if you’re a tech person, you learn something new every day," he said. We asked what the hardest thing to fix is, and Mr. Files said troubleshooting (trying to figure out what's wrong) is the hardest part.

Mr. Files has a lot of advice to give to students, teachers, and others. His advice is to not worry about your lack of knowledge and to be open to learning; have a constant stream of information. He says anxiety can help you or harm you. The key is to talk about it and not be ashamed or afraid of it. It gets in the way, but talking about this anxiety with his students is another way of teaching. A base need for all humans is to be seen and heard, he told us. Mr. Files also had great advice to give to other teachers: “If you build a strong community, and you feel comfortable, the behavior follows.”

Mr. Files says he doesn't have social media because he's a very anxious person. He says all the pictures and tweets make him nervous. It's scary for him as a parent, and especially as a teacher, because that's sort of what his job is about. He said that he wants to help us and know more about us, but social media has an effect on that. He doesn’t like it because you could say things you wouldn't say face to face. Mr. Files wants to protect his daughter by looking at her phone once she is old enough to have one. He says he's not snooping; he just loves her too much to let her get hurt.

We would like to thank Mr. Files again for being available at the last minute when we needed him. All the effort and thought he put in to the interview was much appreciated.