Green Hill High School teacher reflects on everyday

The series of profiles continues with a glance at Jacob Wheeler, a social studies teacher at Green Hill High School

Name: Jacob Wheeler

School: Green Hill High School

Age: 29

What grade/subject do you teach? I teach mostly high school seniors. I currently teach AP US Government, AP Comparative Government, and Government & Civics. While at Green Hill, I have also taught African American History, Bible, and World History. Before coming to Wilson County, I taught AP World History, American History, and Personal Finance.

How long have you been in education (total years)? I have taught for 5 ½ years.

How many years have you taught at your current school? I have been at Green Hill for 3 ½ years. I am a proud part of the small-ish group that have been here since the school opened in 2020.

What other schools have you taught at prior to your current school? Before coming to Green Hill (and Wilson County), I taught at Hunters Lane High School in Nashville. I was also a substitute teacher in Metro Nashville high schools before that.

What is something unique about you — whether it’s a hobby, skill or past accomplishment — that most people likely wouldn’t be aware of? This school year was the first year I was eligible to be nominated for Teacher of the Year. I am honored that my colleagues picked me to represent them, even though I haven’t been teaching for a long time.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time (hobbies, etc.)? I’m a self-described “boring” person. My hobbies include reading, spending time with family, and binge-watching a couple different shows on Hulu and Discovery+. I also enjoy cheering on the Buffalo Bills every weekend during football season. If I had more time, I’d love to spend time cooking and baking — I have whole binders and folders on my phone full of recipes that sound good and that I tell myself I will make “one day.”

How would you describe your teaching style? My teaching style is more question-and-answer based, especially in my AP classes. I enjoy listening to my students discuss material that they have read about and learned instead of talking at them all the time. I also really enjoy finding creative projects or games that we can play that cover our content, instead of assigning routine worksheets or packets. No matter what I do in class, I make sure my students take responsibility for their learning, especially since I teach them right as they are about to graduate high school.

Could you share a couple of strategies for how you keep students engaged and motivated? In Government class, I am lucky to have an amazing resource in iCivics. It is an educational nonprofit founded by the now-late Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and they have amazing lessons, projects, and civics-themed educational games for students. My students seem to enjoy playing the games and it gets them engaged with the content of the course. I also try to come up with interactive projects and tying in our standards to current events as much as possible, so they can see that government is just happening in their textbook, it’s something happening every day around them.

Have you ever encountered a challenge in teaching that required you to rethink your teaching methods and/or approach? I think this happens on an almost daily basis, but that’s not a bad thing! If you’re not reflecting on your lessons, gathering feedback from students either directly by asking them or through assessing their progress, then you can’t grow as a teacher. I’m always thinking of new ways to do things, whether that’s just activities to do or ways to teach my classes, or completely rethinking projects and tests from one semester to the next. That’s a natural part of teaching that makes us better.

What is different, unique and/or enjoyable about the school that you are currently teaching at? Every day that I get to come into Green Hill and teach a subject I love is an enjoyable one. My coworkers and administrators are some of the nicest, most supportive people I have had the privilege to work with. The school culture is also something so different than most other schools. My first teaching job almost made me quit teaching because of various problems, so coming to Green Hill saved my teaching career and I will always be thankful for that.

Why did you choose teaching as a career path? I have always loved education, but I didn’t initially want to be a teacher. I studied political science and public policy, thinking I was going to do something in that field. Elections during my college years really discouraged me from pursuing politics as a career, though, and so I turned to education. I chose teaching as my career path because I want to be able to teach students key skills about making respectful, fact-based arguments, critical thinking, and analyzing politics and current events, in the hopes that our future politicians will be better than the ones we have now.

What is the most fulfilling part of teaching? The most fulfilling part of teaching is when a student has that “aha!” moment. Seeing students put in the effort to learn material that they might not be familiar with and then being able to apply it to other scenarios is an almost magical thing. It makes the

What is the most challenging part of teaching? The increased politicization of education has made teaching more challenging than ever before. Over the past several years, political leaders have seemed to capitalize upon those antagonistic voices in the community that seek to sow disinformation about public schools at the expense of supporting teachers, librarians, and school staff. It is hard to come to work and do your best every day when you know a sizable portion of your community doesn’t have faith in your professionalism or trust your motives for wanting to be in the classroom.

How has your view of teaching changed since you first embarked on your teaching career? My view of teaching has improved since I first started, mostly because I made the switch to Wilson County Schools. Teaching in Metro Nashville is hard and I struggled a lot at my first teaching job on a lot of different levels. In 2020, I applied at Green Hill, knowing it would be a pay cut to leave MNPS, but it was so worth it on so many levels. Coming to Green Hill was certainly the best decision I have made.

How have you seen the profession change over the course of your career, and how do you see it continuing to evolve going forward? Even in just five-and-a-half years of teaching, I have seen the reliance on technology grow in education. Some of the changes in this regard are beneficial and allow teachers to get more creative with the way they present information to students and can help reach students better, but it is also challenging, too. In our building, learning almost seems to stop when the internet goes out, because all our lessons, all our plans, are online. I started an “Open in case of no internet” folder that I keep in my classroom for days when that happens. Technology is becoming more and more prevalent every day, and so I see teaching continuing to incorporate it going forward, but my hope is that we balance it with more practical methods of instruction as well and don’t become entirely dependent on it for instruction.

If there was any one variable that you could control or enhance to help with the educational process, what would that be and why? I’d really like to have a superpower where I could snap my fingers and every cell phone in my classroom would stop working. Technology can really help in a classroom, but cell phones are more of a distraction than anything. Enforcing policies around cell phone use helps in the classroom but doesn’t stop students from getting on their phones in class. Hence my wished-for superpower!

Who is somebody who has been especially impactful in your teaching career, and why did he/she make such an impact on you? I can’t pick just one! I am incredibly fortunate to teach with a group of teachers that we call the “A Hall Family” at Green Hill. These teachers are some of the nicest, funniest, and most talented people I know. On any given in-service day, you can find us sitting together, talking and joking, and eating lunch together. We have gotten together over the summer breaks, too. I have learned so much about being a great teacher and person from them that I would have to pick them as having had the most impact on my teaching career. They are quite simply the best!

Could you share what has been one of your most memorable moments in teaching? My Spring 2023 AP Comparative Government class did a project that required them to put on their own version of the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs). They took on the roles of Prime Minister, Opposition Leader, and backbench Members of Parliament and wrote their own questions based on the UK political party system, platform, and current events. We then put on the PMQs, complete with the drama and shouting and raucousness that is the hallmark of parliamentary debates. During this whole thing, I moderated as Speaker of the House of Commons and it was so fun to see their hard work come to life. Their British accents weren’t bad, either!

What is the most meaningful thing a student could say to you? I know it sounds cliché, but just a “thank you” is so meaningful. Teaching can be so stressful at times and to know that students appreciated the work you’ve put in to lesson planning and preparing materials and everything else really makes it all worth it. I have a file organizer full of notes from past students and look through it often to remind myself that what I do matters to so many people.

How would you ideally like to be characterized or remembered as a teacher? I would like to be remembered as a teacher who supported all my students in the process of learning and promoted respect and civility in political discussions. I tell my students all the time that my measure of success at the end of a class isn’t a grade or the number of students who sign up to take an AP exam, it is knowing how to have respectful, intelligent, fact-based conversations about government and politics, I will consider my time as their teacher a success. That’s how I want to be remembered.