Christopher Tims, Waterloo East High School

Position: History Teacher

Years Teaching: 12 years

Hobbies/Interests: Hanging with family, lifting weights, reading, listening to music, walks outdoors, fishing, watching good movies or a show. Coaching wrestling through Waterloo East and Iowa USA National Team. Volunteering at my church as a minister in training through Antioch Baptist Church. Motivating and inspiring people through my socials.

What do you enjoy most about teaching? I enjoy building relationships, making a positive impact in the lives of people students and adults alike. I enjoy seeing young people learn, grow and develop through class material and life in general. I enjoy and love having a daily opportunity to impact a life for a lifetime.

What do you find the most challenging about teaching? Finding opportunities to collaborate across curriculum and subject areas. Also when students do not see their own potential, gifts and talents.

Best tip for new teachers: Your value comes from who you are not what you do. Seek to build and foster strong relationships based on mutual respect and trust.

Best tip for career teachers: A flower dies when it stops growing. Never get to a place where you incapable to learn and grow.

Favorite piece of advice for students: Your value comes from who you are not what you do. Do the best you can with what you have where you are at. -Jamie Gilbert Joshua Medcalf

What being a Gold Star Teacher means to you: Being a Gold Star means excellence, it means perseverance, pushing and defying limitations. It means that the impact that I am making is making a difference in peoples lives. That is the true reward. To know that each day I am making a positive impact in someone's life.