Former Charlestown Teacher Eric Lannan has jumped in mid-quarter to replace Katherine Strandmark, taking over her basic skills, honors and standard English 10 classes. Lannan has 21 years of teaching experience under his belt, having taught at Charlestown Highschool for 11 years and at Jefferson County Public Schools for 10.
Despite his past experience, taking over a class mid-year is a new experience for the english teacher.
“It’s something I’ve never done before. It’s been difficult in terms of relationships with kids because the kids don’t really know you. That’s probably been the hardest part. They are very leery of you, and just uncomfortable with the whole situation,” said Lannan.
For students, a change in teacher means having to adjust to the changes in the classroom as they get to know their new teacher and the way they teach.
“Every teacher is going to run their classes a little differently. Every teacher likes different instructional strategies and teachers react to kid’s behavior differently. And one thing that helps kids a lot is routine and when you change the routine, it kinda throws everybody off until they adjust to that new routine,” said Lannan.
In time, both students and teachers will adjust and Lannan is hopeful for his coming time at FC.
“It’s been a little tricky, but I think every day’s been better. Hopefully it doesn’t happen again and I’ll be here for a while,” said Lannan
Q&A with new teacher Eric Lannan
What classes did you teach at Charlestown?
At Charlestown I taught AP Seminar, English 10 and my favorite electives, called Sports literature and Sci-fi literature. I have no electives right now, but maybe we can get them here one day.
Has the size at FC been an adjustment?
It is a much bigger school. That’s probably the first thing you notice when you pull into the parking lot,just the size of everything.
What differences have you noticed between FC and your old schools?
It seems like Floyd Central offers a lot of extra stuff that my other schools did not. I thought the planetarium was really cool, I never had a planetarium at my old school. Not that I use it a whole lot, but its a really neat thing for the kids.