Q: What is your name and how do you spell it?

A: Justin Cothran.

Q;: What classes do you teach?

A: AP World History

Q: How long have you been teaching?

A: 15 years

Q: Why did you come to Bellaire?

A: Why did I come to Bellaire? Well there’s a two part answer to that. First of all was that I was recruited by Ms. Nocca to join the AP World History. They have a long successful record so I was kinda honored because I know that they don’t just ask anybody to join the team, so I told her I need to think about it and then I decided I would. The second part was that at my old job there was a restructuring going on, so they had a surplus of teachers and staff so some people were reassigned, so I was going to be reassigned anyway.

Q: What other schools did you teach at?

A: I taught at Clear Brook High School, Sharpstown High School, and Robeson High School in New York City, that would be in Brooklyn, but it closed and went out of business so to speak and then Bellaire, so four high schools.

Q: Why did you become a teacher?

A: I’ve always wanted to be one, that’s a generic answer, but even when I was little I used to play school, so I’ve always wanted to be a teacher and I love explaining things to people and just always wanted to become a teacher.

Q: Favorite part about teaching?

A: The best moment of your life is when you attend graduation and get to see the kids that you taught walk across the stage that’s when it all comes together and it’s like yeah, a small part of that is mine, so yeah you get a great sense of reward when you see students actually graduate and move toward the next stage of their life.

Q: What do you like about Bellaire?

A: What I love about Bellaire and I find surprising is the diversity. I come from Sharpstown and Sharpstown is diverse in fact Sharpstown made the news for being diverse, but Bellaire, wow. I have students everywhere from Greece to Persia and in between so the diversity is refreshing. One of the reasons I didn’t want to leave Sharpstown is because it was a very diverse school I had up to 24 languages spoken in my classes so I was afraid I was going to lose that, but Bellaire has that. It’s refreshing to see the world represented.

Q: Other hobbies outside of teaching?

A: I have two hobbies. I love to cook, to professionally cook and I love to travel. I’ve been to a lot of places. I’ve taken two trips this year so far. My last trip I went to Greece and I went to four stops inside Greece to see historical sites and then I went to Mexico City in the summer because I wanted to see Tenochtitlan.

Q: Do you incorporate what you see into your teaching?

A: Yes, absolutely. That’s one of my goals is since I’m going to teach the world I like to go and see these places that I talk about.

Q: How did you prepare during the summer after Ms. Nocca recruited you?

A: Well, Ms. Nocca actually gave us homework and packets, no joke. She gave me three books and she gave me an overview of the course so for about two weeks I just sat down and read my books and paced the course and I had to do the summer assignment as well, of course. So yeah, that’s how I prepared. It was intense.

Q: What’s the most important thing that you want your students to get out of this class?

A: I’ve always wanted students to leave me better or slightly better than how they arrived with me. That can be in character, in knowledge, or in content.

Q: Any additional thoughts?

A: The only thing that’s a little disconcerting about Bellaire is it’s size. It’s crowded. I’ve actually tried to walk the halls with the students during the transitions and it’s very difficult. I have complete empathy for students because it is a very full building. The stairwells are like, wow, it’s a traffic jam. So I believe that passing periods should be longer than five minutes.