About

Will Schuck: From Writing to Teaching

I chose teaching for my profession because learning and discovering new things is fun for me. I want to help children understand the joy and satisfaction that come from reading, writing, thinking, talking, listening, asking questions and discovering the answers to their questions.

When a career coach once asked me to consider all of the positions I have held in my career – without consideration of pay – and asked which I would choose, the answer was clear and immediate: I would tutor students in writing. Having served as a composition tutor in college, it was the kind of work that did not seem like work. It was the kind of work that seemed to help others more than anything else I had done, and it was the kind of work that left me feeling like I had made a difference in the lives of others.

Not long after that revelation, I began an organization dedicated to improving the writing of mostly adult writers: The Sherwood Anderson Literary Center. For five years, I not only managed the organization but developed a program of writing activities designed to improve writer’s writing through workshops, critiquing and peer feedback and also to provide opportunities and incentives to publish.

After a series of layoff situations in my career as a corporate writer, communications manager and marketing and public relations director, I decided to substitute teach in the public schools. What I found was that my assignments in the intervention classrooms were much like my moments as a composition tutor. They did not seem like work, they were about helping others and they left me feeling like I made a difference in the lives of children. That is when I knew that teaching – as an intervention specialist – was where I belonged.

My philosophy: Know, understand and work with each student’s distinctive culture and talent to bring out the achiever in him/her, and derive the best opportunity to mentor the student toward reaching his/her personal zenith.