SPA taught Upper School English teacher Chris Keimig how to approach teaching in a different fashion than before.

“Before teaching here I had taught high school students, but only in the context of a college classroom,” Keimig said.

At the University of Minnesota, PSEO (Post-Secondary Enrollment Options) students from different high schools attended his undergraduate classes.

“I think that people who are not high school teachers don’t always have a clear sense of what high school teachers do every day, and so that sort of scope and breadth of the job was something that was new to me and that I enjoyed,” Keimig said. For example, high school teachers regularly encourage more communication and accountability between themselves and students than college instructors do with their students.

At the beginning of the summer, Keimig will move to New York City to teach at a private school there. “I’m from the East Coast, so it’s kind of returning home in a sense,” he said.

Overall, Keimig has enjoyed his time here at SPA. “I love that being a superstar on the debate team or the school newspaper is just as a big a deal as anything that takes place on the athletic field [at SPA]. My high school experience was very different from that, and it’s really special to be surrounded by students and colleagues who put such a high value on intellectual achievement,” he said.

For Keimig, teaching and learning between students and teachers is reciprocal.

In his classroom, he said to students, “I look forward to seeing your names on book jackets, bylines, and campaign signs years from now.”