Q: What is your name? How do you spell it?

A: Gabriel Byrd

Q: What classes do you teach?
A: I teach mathematics at Bellaire, so I teach algebra 1 and geometry. Those are the two classes I have right now.

Q: How long have you been teaching?

A: I just started

Q: Do you know Dr. Hamilton? Did you ever substitute at Pin Oak? I just heard that you did.

A: Yes, I did. I taught geometry there that’s right.

Q: So you were a substitute before?

A: I was a student teacher there, so I had a semester of teaching.

Q: Where did you go to college?
A: Houston Baptist University, so they had a program there, and there are a lot of you guys here that were in that class. You were in that class?
Q: No, I’ve just heard.

A: There were a bunch of guys that came to Bellaire that were in that same class that are sophomores.

Q: I said I was going to interview Mr. Byrd, and some of my friends said, “Oh! Mr. Byrd he’s cool.”

A: That’s awesome.

Q: How fresh are you out of college?
A: I did a full year here last year under Mr. Reynolds. He was my mentor teacher. I did a whole year here, and then now they hired me on, so this is my first full year at Bellaire.

Q: So you taught here before?

A: Yes, at Bellaire.

Q: As a teaching assistant?

A: Pretty much. You go to a class everyday for a full day, morning to the end, and about two weeks in to the class you just get into it and then two weeks later you’re taking care of a few things at a time. It goes on. It builds up to a point where you’re just running the whole classroom by yourself, and the teacher just kind of sits there at this desk. I did that for a full year, so after the fifth week I was teaching the whole class, every class for the most part.

Q: Did that count as college?

A: Yes, that was a class. I just had to be here all the time, and I had to like document it all. It was a class. It was my last class of college. You have to do that the last semester before you graduate.

Q: I understand that your young. In college do they play a lot of Spikeball?

A: I love Spikeball. We actually just started the Spikeball club here. There wasn’t one before, but we had the first meeting Thursday and it went really well.

Q: Was there also a meeting at lunch today?

A: Oh yes. I’m also the sponsor for the FCA. FCA was hosted in here Friday, and Spikeball was hosted in here Thursday.

Q: What’s the FCA?

A: The Fellowship for Christian Athletes, but you don’t have to be a Christian or athlete to come. It’s a fairly known club on campus, so a lot of people come, and it was a good turn out. Alex did a great job. He’s the president of the club, and he did really well.

Q: I saw some college kids playing Spikeball at a park, so I’m wondering if that’s a huge college thing.

A: It is. It’s a fairly new sport. It’s only been around a couple years. It was actually funded through Shark Tank, the show.

Q: I would invest in it.

A: Oh yea! It’s fun, it’s taken off. We had twelve people in here last time, and that was without announcing it at all, so I think once we get the announcements going, we’re definitely not going to be in this classroom. I’m going to see if I could try and crack a deal with the coaches to see if I could use the gym. They know me really well form when I went to school here, so I think they’ll let me. If we could do that that would be perfect.

Q: What was your graduating class at Bellaire?

A: It was 2012 to 2013. I’m super young, but I don’t act like it. Yes, I’m young, but I know what it means to be a teacher, I know what it takes, and it’s been going well. First week was good.

Q: How has Bellaire changed since you last attended?

A: The culture has definitely changed a bit, and one of the things I’ve noticed is just over the years size has changed. People are a lot smaller coming in to high school than when I came.

Q: I feel like that too.

A: The guys that I went to school with were massive, and now kids are pretty small these days. Obviously we’re getting a new building, so that changes a bit of things. There are some new faces, but there are a lot of teachers that taught me still. HISD has changed a few things testing ways. The STAAR test. I think I took the TAKS test instead of STAAR.

Q: Oh, I thought the STAAR test was here forever.

A: No. That just started. Around 5 years ago.

Q: Was the science wing here when you attended?

A: I think it was built either my last year or the year I left.

Q: I heard it was relatively new.

A: I think it was built the year that I left, so about 4 or 5 years ago.

Q: So Bellaire has changed a lot.

A: Oh yeah. Especially with that new side of the building because before that it was just the main course, so it was super packed in the halls compared to what it is now.

Q: It’s less packed now?

A: Yes it was more crowded before the science wing.

Q: That sounds bad.

A: They actually had the second year of Mr. Bellaire the year that I left, and I competed in that.

Q: Did you win?

A: I got third place.

Q: That’s pretty good.

A: The guys that beat me were singers, so it wasn’t really fair.

Q: Because there’s a talent show right?

A: Yes, I did a little skating thing. It was super cool it was an old school roll bounce thing, but the two guys in front of me both sung, and they had good voices. Still kind of salty about it.

Q: So how did you decide you wanted to teach math?
A: I’ve always love math. I actually majored in mathematics in college. The first 3 years of my college career was strictly mathematics. I did really well in mathematics here at Bellaire High school, so I knew I wanted to do something with math. I also taught youth ministry in church, so I just combined the two, and that’s when I realized teaching is a good option, so I just tried it out and I loved it. That’s how I became a math teacher.

Q: It sort of just happened?

A: Yes, with a little help from my wife. She just told me I should do it, and it worked out, so give credit to her.

Q: I hear that you have no idea what you’ll become it just happens.

A: In college you spend the first two years just knocking out the main classes that you need anyway, so that you can better decide after a year or two what you want to do. Right now you don’t have to know what you want to do. I think you should be doing the best you can in everything you do. Whether it’s a sport, whether it’s class, whether it’s being a son or daughter, you should do whatever it is to the best of your abilities, because the more you do those things well, the more you’ll get.

Q: What did you expect when you came to Bellaire as a teacher?

A: I definitely expected kids to think I’m young. I expected the kids to embrace the fact that I’m a young alumni, and that I played a bunch of sports here, and that I was pretty well known on campus, being a good athlete and student. I share my history with them I have a little bio wall with my last year’s jersey. To kind of show them “Hey, I came from the same desk and the same shoes that you’re in now.”, so my expectation is that the kids will know who I am and embrace it. They can learn from my example that they can do it. They can make it through, and it’s not the hardest thing in the world.

Q: If you were my teacher I would definitely respect you, because you can relate to you students.

A: Some of the teachers that are teaching this year have taught me, so if you don’t listen to me, then you’re not setting yourself up for success because I’m telling you everything you need to do to be successful at Bellaire High school. I just came through here, and I know exactly what it takes. I want to give hope and encouragement to students. Maybe students have hard backgrounds and they’re going through stuff, or maybe they have it all together, and they just need some inspiration. I’m trying to help with all those things for every singly body.

Q: You do seem pretty inspirational.

A: I try. I try to be.

Q: Do you aim to be that cool, life-changing teacher?

A: Well, I’m not so cool, I can try to be. I try to be more so life-changing or encouraging. I do a daily quote every single day just to try and get their minds going. Trying to get them to think real deep about things instead of just going through the days mindlessly. I want them to really just grab hold of the moment, and to take advantage of what’s being given to them.

Q: Do you have any interesting hobbies?

A; Spikeball is definitely my favorite hobby right now. I have a son on the way he supposed to be born in about three days, so I’m sure he’ll be a hobby when he comes. I play videogames, but that’s about it. I’m still young at heart, I like Spikeball and being active.

Q: Would you say you’re good at Spikeball?

A: I’m not the best. Some of the kids I play with at church have been playing for years, but I’m pretty good at it. I like teaching people more because I can help someone out who doesn’t know, so they could get better at it, rather than telling them to just do it themselves.

Q: Thank you, I think that will wrap up the interview.