Greg Kloes
Mira Costa High School | 10th grade, world history
How long have you been teaching? I’ve been teaching for 28.5 years.
What inspired you to be a teacher? Several interesting twists occurred in my life shortly after I graduated from college. One was I was unhappy in my sales job and my dad invited me to a teacher’s convention in San Diego. When I met many of the teachers at this convention, I felt like I was surrounded by like-minded people and wanted to teach so I could be surrounded by people who care about others, want to give back to the community and were intelligent, yet supportive of others. Once I began substitute teaching, I found that I really enjoyed being around high school-age students. They were fun, energetic, funny and, of course, challenging. Lastly, I have a passion for history and wanted to share my passion with young people so they could see that people who lived long ago are very similar to all of us living now.
What is your greatest joy in teaching? The greatest joy in teaching is passing on knowledge of history and life to students who are just going through an important intellectual maturation process. Once students see that history is an amazing story, they become fascinated by the variety of characters we study and learn about. Students who in the past have hated history are my favorites, because after a year in my class they come around and see just how interesting World History is. However, one of the great joys is contrasting student ability to think from the beginning to the end of the school year. For many students, the sophomore year is one of tremendous growth.
What about the greatest challenge? I think the greatest challenge is the fact that I work at a high-functioning, very successful school with a great deal of parent involvement. The effect has been a very high turnover in the administration at our school. Vice principals come and go, many staying for less than three years. As a result, teachers have inconsistent discipline, a variety of educational reforms that have little impact on increasing student success, instability from the top and a student population that feels like they can bend the rules without consequences. We also have had a variety of technological reforms and computer acquisitions that have made classroom teaching more complicated. Lastly, the many administrators have all implemented a variety of reforms that has led to diminished time in the classroom with students making the delivery of curriculum more challenging.
What if a student can have only one takeaway from time spent in your classroom, what would it be? If students have one takeaway it would be that there is nothing we are doing today (absent technological change) that hasn’t already been felt, been done, been tried, been completed. It is so important for students to think critically about what they read, have historical empathy for those who came before us, and to see that our short time on this planet is remarkably similar to the journey of those who lived centuries ago. If students walk away with this understanding, they will be better humans.