Formerly a struggling and rebellious high school student, Christopher Caton now motivates his students to be successful in school.
“I was a bad student in high school. I just didn’t have the patience to sit down and be able to do the work and my mind was on other things that were more fun,” World History and Life Skills teacher Christopher Caton said.
As he says, Caton led the typical teenage life: skateboarding in his free time and playing guitar in a heavy metal, punk band. As a student, Caton’s least favorite subject was math, but he was intrigued by history. He was a struggling student through sophomore year, but everything changed in 11th grade when his teacher, Mr. Heathcote, became his role model. Heathcote gave Caton the confidence to ask more questions and become a more curious student.
After high school, Caton took a community college to a four year university path where he further pursued his love for history. Following college, his interest in teaching was put on the back burner while he worked in the medical field. Later on, he was given the opportunity to be a teacher and he has never looked back since.
Caton has a teaching philosophy that helps keep students engaged and excited about learning.
“Keep it fun. Keep it light, you know, not always light but definitely keep it fun. Keep trying to keep it moving so we’re doing different stuff,” Caton said.
Utilizing this technique, he has kept many of his students interested in history and engaged in class. One of his favorite parts of teaching is seeing students connect the dots after a discussion about a larger historical problem.
As a 9th and 10th grade teacher, Caton is great at relating to the new freshmen coming to Sequoia. He connects with them through his own experiences, and when they are struggling, he lets them know.
“. . . you’re not out of it. You know, you can still come back and win this thing.” Caton always tries his best to motivate students to continue their education. He enjoys seeing a change in their effort and engagement between first and second semester. Caton has great advice for students to be successful in school:
“School’s kind of just a series of requirements with a few side quests. High school is actually pretty fun, believe it or not, even though you may not think it right now. Yeah, so like, honestly just embrace it. You know, do your best and embrace it, you know, try to make friends, live it up, but get your stuff done,” Caton said.