Steve Kerkman

English Teacher 28 years MSHS 34 total

Language Arts Department Head

Head Softball Coach

Q: How has your job changed since working here?

A:  “Got here at the birth of the internet, so I mean, being online and doing online classes, Google Classroom, and just making everything more digital.” One to one and digital stuff like that from where it was all paper copies and all that kind of stuff a long time ago. Less time in the copy room.”

Q: In what ways have things really NOT changed?

A: “Holding kids accountable. Making things relevant all the way through, even though I might be teaching the same things through the same books. You try to make it relevant by what’s happening in the world or in their lives.”

Q: What do people not fully understand about your job here?

A: “I think the biggest misnomer is summer’s off, which is not ever the case. I’m probably up here more in the summer than I am during the school year. Also, just like that we(teachers) walk out the door at 3:45, and that’s the end of the day, but it’s just constant.”

Q: What kind of part-time jobs have you worked in while in college or even while working full-time in education?

“Well, right now, I referee volleyball, so that’s new. I’ve done hitting lessons, and I worked for Millard United Sports as an instructor.

In college I was an assistant manager at a movie theater. I was a formal wear expert at a tuxedo place. I was a irrigation pump repair specialist. It was a very, very, dirty work.”

Q: If you weren’t a teacher, what other career was a close runner-up you were considering when you were a young person our age or during college?

A: “I was a business major for one semester, so probably accounting or something like that.”

Asking about if he’d ever considered leaving for a different coaching job ——“I had some opportunities to go to college. But it was just with timing, with family, just different things. It was pretty hard to do.”

Q: What are you going to miss most?

A: “The day to day in the classroom is the biggest part of it. That’s really kind of the focus center of the teacher. Both student connection and the act of teaching.”

Q: What are you planning to do in retirement?

A: “Dont know yet, but something.”

Graduated from Hastings St. Cecilia High School

Undergraduate at UNL

Masters from UNO

Post masters – online through Kearney, Wayne, UNL, and UNO