Conversation highlights teaching approach of this exceptional educator

Tom Mitchell, a Language Arts and English teacher at Mesa Academy for Advanced Studies, is a natural educator.

Tom started teaching 50 years ago, instructing formal swimming lessons at age 10. He’s been an educator with Mesa Public Schools for 17 years.

Q: What do you love about your profession?

Tom: My students. I love the look in my students’ eyes when they get it, or when they are listened to with appreciation. I enjoy watching them grow into young adults who make their parents and teachers proud. I marvel at their unabashed enthusiasm for life, idealism and for hard questions. I love knowing they will touch their part of the world with mercy and justice.

Q: What is your favorite part of the school day?

Tom: Holy buckets. That’s like asking the old woman in the shoe which of her children was her favorite. It’s the fact every period I get to greet students at the door. It’s also the honest revelations in their journals, too, or their discussions during seminars.

Q: How do you reach your students?

Tom: Every student who comes into my room gets a handshake—every day. It is my way of telling them I’m thrilled they are here, and thrilled we get to spend time together. I listen carefully when they speak, and read honestly what they write. I demand they be their best selves in my room because that’s what I’m striving to give them—my best self.

Q: What are your favorite childhood memories?

Tom: Of a teacher who said, “I believe in you.” He then proved it every day of the school year by demanding my best effort. Also my dog, Licorice, being so excited to see me that her tail would wag itself around and around until she was turning in a giant circle.

Q: What is the best advice you received and from whom?

Tom: My best advice came from many people and is distilled into this: “You deserve to be the best you; so does your world.”

For more information about all Mesa Public Schools, please visit www.mpsaz.org.