'A dream job:' First-year teacher welcomes start of classes

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Tuesday marked the official end of summer as the hallways at Battle Ground Middle School were loud and full of excited children.

Students could be seen running up to each other and reminiscing on the adventures they experienced this summer, and some were simply thrilled that it was finally their turn to be eighth-graders.

“I’m really excited, because the eighth-grade year is the year that you do a bunch of exciting stuff and you’re kind of the top dogs of the school. So, I’m just really excited, and like last year you were always looking up to eighth-graders and what they’re doing and just really excited to do that stuff, too,” said Drew Blevins, an eighth-grader at Battle Ground Middle School.

For others, Tuesday also marked the start of a new chapter in their lives. For the sixth-graders, this was the opportunity to gain a new level of independence as they navigated the hall, searching for their next classroom.  

The same could be said for Hawkley Pusey. It was the first official day of his teaching career as a seventh- and eighth-grade English teacher.

“I feel like I’ve been telling people as they’ve been asking me about my first day, that I am excited, but I am not ready. And I feel like I’m still kind of in that same spot where there is an endless amount of things to have ready for my students and I could continue adding to that to list, but at the end of the day, I’m just excited to have students,” said Pusey.

Like many of his students, the excitement for the new school year could be seen on his face, because for Pusey, the opportunity to stand at the front of his class was a lifelong dream.  

“As a young kid, it was a dream job to me because that’s what Dad did… But at some point, you grow out of the ‘Oh, I just wanna be a teacher because my dad’s a teacher’, but that dream came along the way in those little moments of my life.”

Pusey remembered the moment he fell in love with the idea of teaching. He was in the fourth grade helping his classmates understand the material they had just learned in math class.

After seeing how much he was able to help his classmates thrive just through some additional guidance, he knew it was the profession for him.

Day one of his career was also full of déjà vu moments for Pusey, because as a child, he also attended Battle Ground Middle School before transferring to West Lafayette Junior/Senior High School.  

“I was just helping out a student figure out his locker situation, and I had a moment where I was like, I remember being in a similar situation my first day,” he said.

Not everyone would relish his situation, Pusey has always wanted to be in a room full of middle schoolers. For him, these grades are some of the most important academic years in a student’s career, and the need for attentive teachers is equally important.

“My heart has kind of been set on middle school since the beginning. Part of it is really that energy level. I have lots of energy, and my classroom is full of energy and that’s the way I like it. Students on their feet, talking to each other and talking to me,” he added.

“I also think that sometimes on the more personal side with students and their relationships with the school. Sometimes in high school, it feels like a lot of course correction. Students have made mistakes or students are struggling in the middle of something. Well in middle school, it feels a lot more like course direction, of like, ‘How can I set my student up for success?”

As the bell rang for fourth period, the room went from being as quiet as a library to as loud as a football stadium on a Friday night.

Pusey got the attention of his class and asked them to share their names, what they did over the summer and who their favorite teacher was with everybody.

Some kids were embarrassed and whispered their names to the class, while others goofed around with silly names instead of their real names.  

Pusey had the students walk around the classroom and share a detail about themselves with one another.

Pusey continuously improvised his lesson plan for the first day to meet the students' energy.

“It’s been a chaotic first day, but it’s been a fun day,” he said.