Mr. Stoverink, a Chemistry teacher at our school, is currently teaching for his second year, but it is his first year at Quakertown. When asking him how his experience at Quakertown has been so far, he simply responded with, “It has been fantastic.” Mr. Stoverink loves Chemistry and enjoys teaching his new students everyday at Quakertown. “I really like the positive attitude towards engaging with the material, and the drive I see from a lot of the students to learn and grow, and go on to do bigger and better things,” he said. 

When asked if teaching was like what he expected it to be, Mr. Stoverink explained how while being a teacher is not exactly like he expected it to be, it is even better. “Teaching in a lot of ways is a lot better than I expected it to be, in terms of building relationships with students and the interactions that I have in the classroom, and kind of building a culture and a climate of positivity and learning is amazing. I really didn’t realize that was gonna be so great,” he explained.

While he has only been here for a short time, Mr. Stoverink has already made great connections with his students. “I feel like as a teacher that my students are really, in a lot of ways, like my own kids. And I get to see them grow and push themselves, and when I see the light bulbs go off and they make new connections, it fills me with pride and joy,” he said happily. He is very glad to be able to grow with his students, and he his excited to see what more he can learn from being a teacher. Thus far, he said “I’ve learned that there’s no end to the amount that I can grow and learn as a person. When we talk about learning as a lifelong activity, and that is very much so true as a teacher, I don’t think that’s something that I can ever perfect. I can always keep getting better at it.”

While he loves his new job here at Quakertown, Mr. Stoverink also has things that he enjoys doing outside of school as well. “My favorite thing to do is just play with my own kids at home,” he said. While he has discovered that being a teacher comes with more work outside of school than he had anticipated, he still knows the importance of spending time with his family and he loves doing so very much. “I have a one and a half year old, a four year old, another four year old, and a five year old, and we have kind of a crazy house,” he said. But while it can get crazy, Mr. Stoverink loves being a father very much. “I like to get them out and exercising, like hiking, or anything that can blow off some of that energy and just see them smile and laugh and have a good time with the family,” he said with a smile. Mr. Stoverink looks forward to being able to grow as a teacher with his students, and he is very excited to see what else he can learn from them in the future.