Q&A with Colony High School English teacher, Trevor Townsend, the Mat-Su Borough's Teacher of the Year

PALMER — The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District recently announced this year’s district Teacher of the Year. The winner is Trevor Townsend, an English teacher at Colony High School. The Frontiersman caught up with him Townsend, a 21-year veteran of the teaching profession for a little Q&A about the honor.

How do you feel about being recognized as the [MSBSD] teacher of the year?

To be totally honest with you, I feel very honored but I’m very unworthy of it because I teach with amazing teachers here at Colony and in the district. There’s just so much talent in this district. I feel honored and humbled.

How long have you been teaching at Colony?

I’ve had the privilege of teaching here nine years and I work with amazing people.

Has it all been in the Mat-Su?

No. Two districts: Bristol Bay School District and the Mat-Su. Just a few more years on Bristol Bay but almost half and half.

What brought you to the Mat-Su?

My little kids (he laughed). My newborn and a son we hadn’t had yet… I dreamt about coming to Alaska since the sixth grade, didn’t know I was going to be a teacher until my freshman year in college- but I always had my eyes on Alaska.

So you’re one of those romantics that wanted to come here?

Yeah, truly; and maybe that’s why I’m the poetry teacher or one of the poetry teachers. I do have that romantic inclination… My parents would say the same thing. They’d be like, ‘yup, he’s the romantic in the family.’ My sister’s more practical; always been the romantic” he laughed.

What drew you to this line of work?

Inspirational teachers. I know it almost sounds like a cliché but it truly isn’t in our profession. I had inspirational teachers across board. I had inspirational history, science, math- all of them… but my love fell with English. In my junior, well I would say my sophomore year, is when I first kind of found my writing voice, my poetic voice.

Sophomore year in High School?

Sophomore year in high school and I had a teacher that celebrated that and she nurtured that in me. In my junior year, I continued to have amazing teachers across the board then another great English teacher.

Why English?

Absolutely fell in love with literature — literature and poetry — just good stories and analyzing good stories, finding out the deeper meaning, the figurative side of things just fascinated my brain.

What keeps you coming back, basically knowing this is what you were meant to do?

I don’t have the most amazing lectures in the world. I don’t have the most amazing thoughts to share with the kids. But I feel like I can provide is provide them an atmosphere of inspiration, an atmosphere to celebrate it in so they’re recognized by their peers and their teachers. And then, the magic, it’s lit. I feel like that’s my job, to just throw a few sticks on the fire, you know?

What is your teaching philosophy?

I really, truly believe the students are first, content is next. That’s my teaching philosophy. If you can get kids to believe in themselves, feel appreciated and respected, feel like they’re in a safe in environment, well here’s the bottom line: the content will go more to long term memory and go to more long term practicality in their experiences because they’re valued first… When you get a whole class of 36 to believe in one another and believe that their voice is going protected and trusted in a classroom- they will just give you more than you ever expected from the content… that’s what drives me.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com