Pearson Minter

James Pippin and Jeremy Werts, the creators of The Teacher Project, pose for a picture. They have had over forty teachers sign up already. “It was really a cool experience,” early volunteer English teacher Allie Currin said.

“The Teacher Project,” a newly founded club run by English teacher Jeremy Werts and history teacher James Pippin, is reinforcing a culture of improvement in and around FMHS. Teachers in the club voluntarily reserve a time to attend other teachers’ classes to observe and take notes of different teaching methods. They meet every nine weeks and discuss the different tactics used and how they can be implemented into their individual classrooms. The idea has been in the works for several years now, but over summer break both teachers set the club into motion. Initially, Werts and Pippin thought the new club would get rejected by the school; however, it was approved, and the inventors informed everyone via announcement to the entire school during the teacher work week before school started. 

The administration made their support very clear, but wanted to be hands off. With this in mind, Werts set multiple goals for the club. Werts wanted to make a habit out of teachers improving themselves daily, which is goal number one. The other goal is to create a community of teachers who trust each other and avoid a judgmental approach. This new club gave them a way to help other teachers while also learning new ideals like teamwork. 

“Teachers in the club trust each other to share their ideas with each other and create a community where we have a common goal, which is to get our kids to voluntarily get better at what they do,” Werts said.  

A couple of years ago, Werts realized he wanted to further his professional development. The normal teaching improvement camps weren’t helpful for him and he wanted to give his students his best everyday. He started teaching with Pippin, and they worked on certain projects and realized the relative effectiveness of being able to talk to someone about different subjects and strategies being used to relay the information in a clear way. His realization has made him want to create a new club for that, which in turn helped create the Teacher Project. However, he was worried not many people would care enough to voluntarily join and go to classes to learn. 

“The first and main measurement of success is participation,” Werts said, “and then continued participation.” 

So far, the success has been above and beyond what they expected. The goal was 10 teachers sign up for this year, and 20 sign up for next year. At the time of publication, over 40 teachers have signed up. The success has been an unexpected surprise.

 Along with teacher participation, Werts and Pippin talked about a system of survey questions to get accurate information. The personal views of contributing teachers will then be taken to the administration, who then can help in the future.

“So it’s really neat just to see how a different teacher approached building relationships with students,” one of the early volunteers in the teacher project— English teacher Allie Currin said. 

 The teacher project will serve as a platform for teacher professional growth, which in turn helps the students create better relationships while also learning more efficiently. More and more schools around the country are starting to use a teacher observation club to further development, and now this nationwide voluntary organization has turned local with the help of Mr. Werts and Mr. Pippin.