APACHE JUNCTION, AZ — To begin the 2024-2025 school year, ABC15's Nick Ciletti is once again profiling teachers from across the Valley to highlight their goals for the year - and then will follow up with them in the spring to see how it all went!
To kick off the series, Nick is doing something he's never done before: profile a male teacher.
According to recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics, about one in ten elementary school teachers are men nationwide.
"If I'm bored inside my classroom, my students will be bored, too," explains Martin Byrne, a third-grade teacher at Four Peaks Elementary School, part of the Apache Junction Unified School District.
But judging by all the smiles we saw when we stopped by a few weeks ago, there's nothing but excitement inside Mr. Byrne's classroom!
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Nick: What's so special about third grade?
Mr. Byrne: They all know how to put on their jackets and they can tie their own shoes. That's really great. It's a magical year, in my opinion, where we have some of the most testing. We have state standardized testing so there is a high-stakes nature to it that I really enjoy.
Nick: What is your goal for the year?
Mr. Byrne: My goal is to get the kids the best education possible and the way I would define that is a lot of the kids that are coming through my class need more than one year's worth of learning. So when we look at reading, if my students are coming in reading 40 or 50 words per minute, I want them reading 100 words per minute by the end of the year.
Nick: You have high expectations it sounds like for students?
Mr. Byrne: And myself. The only way to get people to have those high expectations is to have high expectations for yourself.
Nick: What is that like to be a male teacher? Especially in elementary school?
Mr. Byrne: This is the first time I'm working with an older male teacher who is a veteran and a master. Most of the schools I have worked at, I am the only male teacher. Most of the schools I work at, I am the only person who can grow a beard!
It may be Mr. Byrne's first year at Four Peaks, but he's actually a veteran teacher with more than a decade of experience in the classroom. For him, it's about combining new lessons with old ones that stand the test of time.
"It's like hardening concrete," Mr. Byrne explains. "You find your tools that work and you experience your first and second year which are really hard and flying by the seat of your pants while you figure out behavior management and lesson plans... You stick with it, figure it out and become a master and then the new challenge is to not get bored with your own practices... There's nothing better than starting a lesson and telling the kids "I've never done this before." Because then they're like oh! Let's do this."
Nick: If your kids could walk away with one lesson at the end of the year, what would it be?
Mr. Byrne: That they are worthy of love. Like...yes, read and write and do math and grow but if I have them take away one thing is that they are worthy of love, kindness and respect and worthy of boundaries and safety and kindness because that is the human part that they need to take away for the rest of their lives.
