New AP Seminar Teacher at Athens

This school year, Athens got a new teacher for the course AP Seminar: Mr. Jennings! Mr. Jennings is new to the Troy School District. Mr. Jennings grew up in Flint, Michigan and then worked as a teacher in Austin, Texas for 10 years before coming to Athens. What inspired him to become a teacher is that in his junior year, he had to do a mini-lesson where he had to teach his classmates about Hinduism and Mr. Jennings thought that he could do this for the rest of his life. His favorite teacher growing up was Mrs. Mockles because she always had a creative lesson plan that made the class creative and engaging. Mr. Jennings’ favorite part about teaching is being apart of the process of self-discovery in a students’ experience.

Something that he dislikes about being a teacher is that he has to drive 90 minutes a day from Flint to Troy. His favorite subject to teach is World History. He doesn't have any prior experience teaching AP Seminar but AP Seminar synthesizes with many other subjects that he has taught. It aligns with his experience of coaching speech and debate in Texas as well as IB. His goals for his first year teaching at Athens is to get to know the Athens community and prepare the students for all of the different projects in AP Seminar. He didn't take AP Seminar in high school. One fact about Mr. Jennings that students are surprised to hear is that he coached a national champion dramatic intern in forensics. Finally, a piece of advice that Mr. Jennings would give to students who want to take AP Seminar is to let your curiosity authentically guide your explanation.

Blog post by Sahasra Bathula, a Creative Guild Student Producer.