Currently a math teacher, Mr. Byer, who goes by Byer to his students, has been involved on and off the Roosevelt community since 2008, Though he has origins teaching English, he is currently teaching in Roosevelt’s Math Department, mainly, as a geometry teacher. In his free time Byer enjoys being active, doing things such as playing baseball. Alternatively he enjoys being at home, playing guitar, cooking, and trying to put his math skills to use by means of building things.
When asked how he found his way to a career as a teacher, he explains that the story in short is as follows: after moving to Portland from Redmond, Oregon for university, he intended to follow a path through pre-law, since he spent high school participating in mock trial. However, being a baseball player in college he found his schedule more strenuous than expected, so he went on to change his major to education. After this explanation, Byer goes on to tell a deeper meaning behind his decision: “The longer answer is my dad eventually became a special education teacher later in his life, and I grew up around a number of different classrooms.” This explanation goes into a more sentimental side of why he chose to follow a career path in teaching and education, “a familiar fallback plan” he adds.
I lastly asked Byer two questions, the first being what is one thing he has learned from being a teacher. He summarizes that he has learned to be adaptable. He expands, saying, “I came from a high school that was very different from Roosevelt.” This goes towards an explanation that where he grew up was very different from Roosevelt, with different expectations, values, and structure as a whole. He had to learn a totally new set of concepts, and rules. “When I was early in my career, I thought I knew what all my students needed,” he states. However, he goes on to say that he has learned that his mindset has entirely shifted. He’s learned that each individual student is just that, an individual who has different needs than the next student, or the one after that. He noted he hasn’t watered down his expectations, just learned to understand that each student has different and often, out of their control needs, which he’s learned to be flexible around.
My next question was if he could give one piece of advice to the students at Roosevelt. He starts off with an anecdote, “A student that told me last year that he wanted to transfer to Grant I literally laughed my head off, I was laughing, I was like, man, you’ll be like 1 in 2000 kids.” He emphasizes that Roosevelt truly is a special place that has so many niche communities to explore, identify, and connect with. He wants students to be able to see their high school experience as something meaningful, whether that meaning is to achieve an individual goal, or to just get through it and find something to appreciate. “It is okay to treat your high school education as the means to an end.” Byer closes out saying, “Find what you need to get you through. But also think about what’s next in your life and find a way to use Roosevelt to get you where you need to go, because we’re going to be here the whole time. But you shouldn’t be here the whole time. Our job is to prepare for the future. And your job is to get out of Roosevelt and get on to something more.” With this statement he hopes to inspire our generation of students at Roosevelt.
