Meet the New Faces: Introducing Robert Johnson!

Mr. Johnson is a first year Assistant Principal.  He loves getting to know people and has various hobbies.  I got the chance to talk with him and ask him some questions so we can get to know him better.

What degrees or certificates do you hold?
I hold a Technology Applications Grades EC-12 as well as Principal as Instructional Leader Grades EC-12.  For degrees I have a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Science.

You’re new to Lively. What is your history in different schools?
I did some time in the Valley, some time in Arlington, and they were both high school so this is brand new for me. In terms of experience, in high school you’re able to tease the kids a lot more, you’re able to make fun of them because they know you’re just teasing but you can’t do that so much in middle school because you’ll get their feelings hurt.

What led you to lively?
It’s in the Austin area, I needed to be closer to my family at this time, and then also it is in an actual school district like. I didn’t want to do a private school or charter school cause then you don’t get to learn as much so I thought it was a really good opportunity for me to do my first year as AP here.

What do you love about Lively so far?
Staff and students. I love those guys, no seriously I mean all the teachers are really nice and every single time I go somewhere their doing something amazing our staff, our admin team are really great.  I’m like best friends with Mr. Pinon.

What made you decide to work in education?
So I was actually a 3D character artist for a long time.  So I did like video game characters, you know Pixar movies and stuff? Or do you play Fortnite? I did skins and things. Yeah, so I did that for a long time when I was in college because that’s like freelance work you can do.  And then I taught a camp, it was just for 3D art and all those things and it was really fun so I was like, you know what? I’m going to try and teach for real and I had fun doing it so that’s what led me to education.

Have you taught a subject before and if so what?

Oh well there you go, so I taught animation so we just did 3D models and programming and a whole bunch of things, so last year was my last year teaching so we did there’s this tool you can use now, we do a lot of motion capturing essentially. So it’s really cool you can just record with your phone then throw it into an AI thing and they give you a motion capture database off of it and then you can put that on to your characters. It was sick. Obviously I’m nerdy so, yeah.

What inspires you?
I don’t even know. I’m going to just say… positive change. Anytime I see anyone doing something awesome for the world or a small community that’s inspiring, that makes me want to do more.

What is the best or worst thing about being an AP?
The best thing for me is getting to know so many different people. Like if I’m a teacher I’m in one room you know what I mean? I probably would have never talked to you right, cause I would have been somewhere else. So it’s awesome that you get to meet so many people. The worst thing is you knuckleheads who decide to do some crazy things and I’m like why are you doing that. That’s probably the worst part.

If you could enroll in a teachers class at lively to learn from them what class would you take and why?
That’s a good question. Honestly, Ms. Wong’s class, she teaches Chinese. I did 5 semesters of Japanese and studied abroad in Japan and my kanji is always really bad but I heard if you study kanji through Chinese you can kind of get a handle on Japanese. So I’d do Ms. Wong’s class.

What’s your favorite band and song from them?
I can’t say I have a favorite band cause I like a lot of bands equally but my favorite song is a song called (Lavender by Laundry Day) , and you should listen to it it’s so good. I mean do you like rock at all? It’s one of the best songs of all time in my opinion. But other than that I listen to everything.

What’s your favorite Austin activity?
I don’t do it enough but just taking a dip inside of Lady Bird, that’s always fun.

Are there any embarrassing work stories you’re willing to share?

Honestly I just put my foot in my mouth a lot if you know what that means. But especially when you’re around high school kids sometimes you can say something and then it’s like, whoops, didn’t mean to say it like that, that makes it sound terrible.

What’s a hobby of yours?
3D art, I also do a lot of video games, I have a yugioh card in the back of my phone, just anything nerdy I’ll do it. Eating, that’s one of my favorite hobbies of all time, ill eat more than anybody.

What is a typical Saturday night like for you?
Depends on how hungry I am. Depends on who I’m around but it could be board games, I don’t work out at night so not that, and then eating at some restaurant I’ve wanted to try for a long time.