After 15 years in MS, John Higuita has swapped roles and will now teach technology, creative design, and FRC in HS.
He will replace Richard Newcomer, who left last year, giving Higuita the opportunity to face a new challenge in High School.
“When Richard decided to leave the school, he asked me [to take his job] and I didn’t even hesitate to take the position. I had to be there, trying to look for new horizons and new projects. And why not? In the middle of this process, I’m going to learn, too,” Higuita said.
The mid-year transition was challenging for the Tech department, as Mr. Higuita had to join existing classes and work with the previous curriculum to keep his new students in pace.
“It was tough because everybody is different; Richard is different, and I have a different methodology. So, I think the smartest thing that I could do was to try to keep the same things he had. I just tried to adapt to the curriculum and his way of teaching. But now, I’m teaching the way I teach. It wasn’t as difficult because students knew, but still, the complicated part was adapting to what he had established,” Higuita said.
This year, Higuita finally took the liberty to put his own touch on the HS technology department by introducing a teaching style that encourages student independence.
“The purpose of every lesson that I design is more specific and places emphasis on students. It is essentially a self-paced course; students have to work on their own, and they have to complete everything in class,” Higuita said.
As of this year, the technology department will also have access to the new maker space. Higuita works on adapting his teaching style to take advantage of the newly introduced infrastructure at TCS.
“What we are going to try to do this year is have a very specific objective or goal: to take advantage of our new maker space. Most of the classes are going to have projects in which the students will have to use the maker space and explore all the possibilities that we can have with those types of hands-on activities,” Higuita said.
