Pro-Teacher, New Co-Teacher: Mr. Francis
February 16, 2023
Kevin Francis, a veteran teacher, has been a part of the Lake Shore family for 18 years. He has taught all sorts of English classes, and this year he is co-teaching alongside Mr. Hubbard, in room 120.
Francis wasn’t always planning on becoming a teacher, however. He was following a completely different career path before being inspired to become a teacher.
“I started off at Chrysler Financial, and I was a supervisor for a collections department, and a big part of my job was training new hires and training new supervisors,” Francis said. “When the economy went bad, at the beginning of 2002, there were layoffs. I was laid off and decided to go back to school.”
Following being laid off, his wife brought up a new career path of teaching. After looking into it, he decided to go back to Oakland University in order to get a degree in English Literature, and a minor in political science.
Teaching quickly became something Francis loved and grew a passion for. Leading him to continue his education with a Master’s Degree in Secondary Education.
“What I do love is when students get it. When they’re engaged and they get it, and you can see that lightbulb moment,” Francis said, “They fully understand and they appreciate it, or you give them an interest in something they never knew they were possibly good at.”
In recent years, Francis went back to school at Wayne State University in order to become a certified Special Education Teacher, allowing him to teach many different students as well as a different subjects.
“I just recently went back, when I became a special education teacher, to Wayne State, and I got an Educational Specialist Degree, with a specialty in cognitive impairment and special education,” he said.
Francis started at Lake Shore in 2005, teaching many different classes throughout the years. This year, he began his first year of co-teaching Government and American History.
Francis said, “To be honest with you, I am used to teaching on my own. I’ve done that for, you know, 17 years, and this is my first year of co-teaching. So, it’s definitely an on-the-job learning thing. I enjoy it, but it’s still new to me.”
For those who are unfamiliar with the position of a co-teacher, it is when a teacher works alongside another to enhance the learning environment for the students. In Francis’s case, he works with Mr. Hubbard, in order to help the students in Government and American History have a better chance of performing well in their respective classes.
All in all, Francis has been a part of Lake Shore for a while now, and with that, he has made an impact on the school as a whole. He has brought inspiration and many beneficial assets that many students are grateful for.