Gary Foessett is a 6th grade World Cultures teacher here at Lively. He has devoted 21 years of his life to teaching here at LMS and he is beloved by students and staff alike. Because of this, it is beyond clear why we at the Falcon Cry chose him to be one of our teacher spotlights for this month.
Foessett has spent some time teaching at the elementary level as well. He chose to teach world cultures because he wants to share his appreciation of the diversity of the world with his students and get them excited about learning about the world.
Foessett always encourages individuality in his classroom, he said that “Even though my expectations are high, I encourage them to still find time to be a kid…and to focus on living in the moment.” Foesett’s past student, Eliza Burkhart had much to share. “He really encouraged individuality in us and it helped me be more of my own person,” Burkhart said.
Another thing that is very important to Foessett is helping his students be more globally conscious. “I hope to impact my students by giving them a larger appreciation of the world and making them more aware of the challenges that we face as a planet, both politically and environmentally,” said Foessett. He has definitely achieved this goal. “His class helps me learn a lot about history and things I’ve never heard of that are going on in the world,” said 6th grader Michelle Hernandez.
“He impacted the way I see the world and he inspired me to be more culturally informed,” said 8th grader Zella Bueche-Pryor. “His lessons and stories are always so intriguing and inspiring,” Pryor said. Foessett wanted to respond to Pryor’s thoughts. “If kids don’t connect to what they are learning then it makes it so much less interesting for them, so it’s my job to make my lessons interesting and relevant to their world,” said Foessett.
Another wonderful quality in Foessett is that he’s very open minded about how each of his students learn and grow. “He is very considerate about how each student learns individually,” said Burkhart. He always tries his hardest to adapt his lessons to accommodate his students’ needs and learning styles.
All in all, Foessett is a fantastic teacher who is always considerate of his students and is incredible at helping students learn and grow in his class.
