How can one be chosen for teacher of the month? What makes someone applicable for this honorary position? Seneca Valley Senior High Librarian, Michael Stebbins, embodies those principles of such a person.

Since the 2000-2001 school year, Stebbins has been teaching at SV. This was after he graduated from the University of Pittsburgh majoring in English. Stebbins student taught for 9th and 10th grades classes at Fox Chapel. Oddly enough, coming out of college Stebbins was not a teacher, he was a banker for about six years. Stebbins majoring in English was not out of the ordinary for him since that was his favorite class as a kid. Any kind of class that required him getting his hands on a book, he enjoyed.

From this came the dedicated, hardworking librarian the school knows today. Not only do we get a wonderful librarian now, but Stebbins has taught various classes prior; including English 9, English 10, Speech, American Literature, Newspaper, and Modern Humanities. He was the Newspaper teacher for 10 years and loved every minute of it. After interviewing Stebbins, the Seneca Scout got to go through old magazines and newspapers with him. He explained that his favorite part of being a teacher is the kids. Everyday there are different issues or problems that he gets to help them solve and something about that really speaks to him.

When asked what his goal was/is as a teacher and if he has reached it yet he answered that it is to help the kids reach their goals and achieve what they need to move on to their exciting lives after high school. Stebbins has gone through getting to know a lot of students, and when asked about how he works with challenging students, he explained how those students are the ones that don’t just complain about “not liking school,” but actually show that they do not care. They don’t see the importance in it until it’s too late. Stebbins explained that all him or other teachers can do is try to motivate those students into realizing how important education is.

Not only is Stebbins an amazing teacher but he also participates in many other extra school activities. He is a co-coach for the girls Golf Team and he is head of Academic Games and Library Club. Stebbins expressed how he misses being the Newspaper teacher and when asked why he responded with, “I miss the kids and I liked the small groups I had. Everyone had to pull their weight. Sometimes we would stay after to get the layout done and there was nothing too formal about the class.” Stebbins expressed that another favorite thing about teaching is every year there were new kids and he loved getting to know every one of them.