With a long history in teaching and only one year at Geary High School, math teacher Danny Blackshear makes it clear why he was selected and tells us how it feels to have been selected.
Blackshear has spent 28 years teaching with 25 of those spent teaching math in the Putnam City School System and two in Oklahoma City Schools.
With only one year of teaching at Geary, Blackshear felt honored to be selected and said he’s enjoyed the atmosphere in the school and has had zero discipline problems.
“The biggest thing is just that your peers think so highly of you to put you on that ballot, Blackshear said. “It’s just nice to be recognized by your peers.”
Blackshear admitted to having a reputation of being a pretty good math teacher and said he has made some improvements in the technology used in the classroom. Both of which he believes are part of why he was selected as Teacher of the Year.
“With virtual classrooms a lot of the time right now, I made the recommendation that we get a microphone for everybody's laptop,” Blackshear said. “That way the kids at home can hear their teacher no matter where they are in the room. Without it, they just can't hear you.”
With COVID forcing some days to go towards virtual-teaching, Blackshear’s first year at Geary started normally with them participating in in-person teaching up until Thanksgiving.
Blackshear said the move over to virtual-learning hasn’t been a hurdle as he said the students at Geary have been great to work with.
“The kids here are wonderful. I’ve had zero discipline problems and very little attendance problems. It’s been a joy to teach in that environment. I do love that,” Blackshear said.
While the students are a joy to work with whether it’s in-person or virtually, having to teach virtually has led to some frustrating times for Blackshear.
“It's better than nothing when you can't be in the classroom. It’s difficult because it's hard to see in the facial expressions to know if the kids are understanding what you're trying to teach,” Blackshear said. “That's probably the hardest part.”
Blackshear, along with his peers, has worked together to make sure the students have what they need to succeed.
“We’ll make home visits. If a kid is having trouble with their WiFi or printer then we'll deliver assignments by paper or other means,” Blackshear said. “We've had to make adjustments to try and keep everybody involved. It can get busy, but it's worth it.”
Something that hasn’t been tough was his transition into Geary as Blackshear had already come to know some of the staff at Geary.
“I knew quite a few people [at the school] and I knew some people out here in Geary because I had been refereeing the Geary wrestling tournament for a number of years,” Blackshear said. “So it really wasn't too bad of a transition.”
His move from teaching in Oklahoma City to teaching in Geary has come with some perks as Blackshear has enjoyed being able to reach out directly to most of the kids' parents when the need arises as he found that to be difficult in bigger schools.
Throughout all his 28 years of teaching, Blackshear’s love for his job hasn’t wavered.
“I really enjoy my job,” Blackshear said enthusiastically. “Just the fact that if we don't do our job, society will fail if our kids aren't educated to go out there in the workforce. Just turning out positive and productive people in society is the ultimate goal.”
Looking ahead to the remainder of the year, there was one thing that immediately stuck out to Blackshear that he hopes they can accomplish.
The biggest thing is we stay in school and don’t have to go virtual again,” Blackshear said with a laugh. “That’s number one so that we get caught up to speed as best as possible.”
Teaching hasn’t been all that Blackshear does as he has taken up coaching during his time at different schools and currently helps coach at Geary. He has also partaken in officiating wrestling matches up to the Olympic level.