Over the past few months, a familiar face has been seen in a new place. Mr. Richer was once a para-educator here for Proctor, but is now a long-term substitute teaching social studies classes in place of the late Mr. Curtis. 

While a student at Castleton University, Mr. Richer taught world history to the 10th graders at Rutland High School. “It was truly a great experience that really inflamed my desire to become a social studies teacher,” he says. Since graduating, he’s spent the majority of his time working at Proctor as both a substitute teacher and a para-educator. 

Since he was in 6th grade, Mr. Richer has wanted to teach social studies, after his father showed him movies and documentaries on the two previous World Wars. He thought the history was interesting and could picture himself as a full-time teacher talking about it. 

Mr. Richer’s favorite assignments are ones where his students have to create something. One time he gave his class a choice to make either a rap or a poem about some part of the Industrial Revolution. “This was a really cool assignment because many of the students chose to write raps and ended up creating videos that were almost like music videos,” he says. 

While today you can google everything and find information on nearly every topic in history, Mr. Richer believes it’s still important to learn history from a real person. “I think it's important to learn about history from a human because while search engines like Google may give answers to many of the questions that a person may have, I don't believe that it can convey the importance of things like people can.”

Fortunately for Proctor, Mr. Richer will return next year as he has been hired as a full-time social studies teacher.