Evan Toby Senior Spotlight

This week’s senior spotlight features Evan Toby and his journey in helping teach Ms. Kinzie’s 7th period interactive media class after she retired from teaching. Her retirement resulted in the loss of a wonderful teacher, and the school was left with the struggle of finding a skilled teacher mid-semester. Evan, who was Ms. Kinzie’s aide and in his third year of interactive media, had helped Ms. Kinzie out throughout the year with ideas for fun assignments, so he wasn’t going into it blindly. Once Ms. Kinzie left and the class was covered by many different substitutes, Evan approached Mr. Shuler with the idea that he could help plan lessons, and Mr. Shuler was supportive and appreciative of that. As mentioned earlier, Evan did have some experience in lesson planning and creating assignments, but he still found it rather difficult at times. Evan was able to recycle some of Ms. Kinzie’s old assignments along with adding many of his own ideas. Evan said, “[Planning lessons] can be difficult at times, but I really enjoy having the freedom to create what I want, especially with taking the class for the past three years, I know what students like to do.” After this experience, does Evan want to become a teacher? “I have definitely considered it, and I still am. I really do enjoy computer science and I think I would enjoy teaching it too,” Evan said. Creating on computers has always fascinated Evan, even though at times it can be a struggle. “Audio/video editing in particular, can sometimes be very tedious and take hours, but once you have your finished project, it is so satisfying how everything falls together.” While Evan is doing a commendable job planning, he is quick to say that he couldn’t have done what he is doing now without Ms. Kinzie’s mentorship. “She has always been a sweet and loving teacher, and she always would help me where I needed it. Knowing that I could always lean on her when I needed help is what truly helped me grow and try new things.” It is students like Evan Toby that prove Delphi is working to give kids opportunities to brighten their future and branch out in trying new things. This also proves what a wonderful and capable person Evan is to be able to have the confidence to pursue his dreams.