Sophomore year: one of the most exciting yet challenging years in a student’s educational pathway. On one hand, freshman year is finally over and students are able to take a breath, knowing that they have adjusted well to the high school mindset. On the other hand, sophomore year opens up to the opportunities of new, rigorous classes; one of these being American History.
GlenOak American History teacher Elijah Baker helps teach U.S. History at the high school, and provides students with an in-depth understanding of the history of our culture.
Baker has been teaching at GlenOak for eight years, and has been one of the AP US History teachers for two years.
“At first I was an Economics major, but I found that sitting in an office all day as my job would be pretty boring and I wanted to make an impact,” Baker said. “I chose Social Studies because I thought it would be something, as I get older, I would continue to enjoy–and that is still the case today.”
As well as teaching, Baker is also the varsity assistant and the head JV coach on the boy’s basketball team for the past six years.
“I’ve been coaching a long time, even before I came to GlenOak,” Baker said. “I got to teach an 8th grade basketball team from my hometown in my freshman year in college and it’s also become one of the reasons as to why I went into education.”
Despite not being a student anymore, being a teacher also comes with its own hardships. Accommodating the needs of different students can be difficult at times, but experience and patience helps.
“One of the hardest things I would say about being a teacher is that there are a lot of students who have a lot of needs and different learning styles,” Baker said. “You need to make sure that every student is learning and provide as much support as you can to the student; we have a really big variety of that at GlenOak.”
Baker spends a lot of time and effort at GlenOak trying to make all of his students improve and feel comfortable in his classes–especially in APUSH; which by many students, is one of the hardest AP classes in high school.
“I enjoy teaching AP because I really enjoy the early history of America, which I don’t get to teach with regular history,” Baker said. “It’s also a challenge for me and a challenge for my students since it’s being taken to another level.”
Despite the unavoidable stress most students have over APUSH, Baker makes sure to offer as much advice as he can to not only make the class a little lighter, but also to guide them along the rigorous AP schedule.
“Be consistent and establish good study habits. It’s a lot of information and it’s hard to cram it all before a test; so try hard to not procrastinate and review a little bit each day,” Baker said.
As the year comes to an end, OST and AP testing draws nearer–which is known to make a lot of students panic and cram in a lot of studying at the last minute. While U.S. History can be difficult at times, it’s important to look over notes every day and step a little out of your comfort zone.
“I see a lot of students earlier in the year staying on task and getting on top of their schoolwork. As the year goes on, I think we need more motivation to keep the students going and give them a last push so that we know that they’re ready for testing and other classes beyond U.S. History,” Baker said.
