Mr. Sparks Interview
Publish: 5/22/23 By: Braylin Bentley and Poppy Bishop
Mr. Sparks is the gym teacher at EJHS. He has been teaching at EJHS for a few years and loves it! Some of you may know him from regular or advanced gym classes, horsepower, football, and wrestling. Many people know him as a teacher, so this article is made to help you know a little bit more about his history, why he started teaching, and some other extra pieces of info you might want to know/have questions about!
His teaching career as a history teacher. He says, “I wanted to get into weightlifting with some of my wrestlers and P.E. was the easiest avenue to get there in school.” When asked why he likes wrestling he said, “I started wrestling in 7th grade, when we had to do it in gym class, and I just really enjoyed it.” Another thing that might be interesting to some people is that Mr. Sparks's wrestling coach was Mr. Gill, a 6th-grade math teacher.
Mr. Sparks told us that he had a few small jobs after college, but has always had his eye on teaching kids. He said that the biggest influence in his teaching career was a 7th and 8th grade Social Studies teacher named Mr. Batey. Mr. Sparks said, “He made Social Studies enjoyable and was very kind even when most Social Studies teachers weren’t.” He also said that all of his wrestling teachers were very good at helping every kid improve.
He says, “Teaching is a way to inspire, encourage, and motivate future generations.” He also says, “I like to see kids be able to do things they couldn’t previously do before and make connections they haven’t previously made.” When asked what his favorite class was, he responded, “My favorite is probably the weightlifting class because it is something that I can compete with the students on, and it is something that I have always loved doing.” He also said that his favorite sports in gym class are pickleball and badminton.
Overall, Mr. Sparks is an amazing gym teacher and we are so glad to have him at Edgewood Junior High School. We hope that this article may have taught you something that you didn’t know about Mr. Sparks. I hope that Mr. Sparks is our gym teacher for many years and that our future 6th graders appreciate him and all he does for our school!