CRESTVIEW — Some high school alumni can’t wait to move on to life’s next chapter. But one 2013 Bulldog doesn’t mind visiting his former classrooms now and then.
While studying at Northwest Florida State College, Alex Andrews is also a substitute teacher for the Okaloosa County School District.
His assignments often take him back to his alma mater, but things have changed.
“Now they have to call me ‘Mr. Andrews,’” he said, talking about students with whom he formerly rubbed shoulders in the Crestview High School cafeteria line and hallways.
“There is a line drawn in the classroom. I’m not their friend, I am their teacher,” Andrews said.
Sometimes, students aren’t the only people with trouble differentiating between the two roles.
“It’s tough for me sometimes,” math teacher Sandi Bufkin, for whom Andrews has substituted, said. “I still have a hard time calling him ‘Mr. Andrews’ because I had him in two of my math classes.”
Likewise, Andrews’ youthful 19 years of age cause confusion.
“The first day I was subbing, there was a fire drill and I was holding the door,” Andrews said. “A teacher said, ‘All right, you can go with your class now.’ Then she saw my badge and realized I was a teacher, too.”
‘VERY AUTHORITATIVE’
Andrews is currently the only alumnus of the Okaloosa School District to return and sub at his alma mater so soon after graduation, according to Kay McKinley, deputy superintendant of schools.
Teachers praise his classroom skills.
“He does a great job,” Bufkin said. “I think it was hard for the kids to draw that line between authority and peer, but he set the tone and was very authoritative.”
Andrews credited other teachers for guiding him in the classroom.
“The biggest tip I got was, ‘Just remember that during school hours, you are an employee of the district; you are not their friend,’” Andrews said.
EDUCATION MAJOR
Andrews, who started NWFSC intending to major in education, said substitute teaching has made him even more enthused about his field of study.
“It helped increase my desire to be a teacher after seeing the different ideas that teachers have, being in different types of classrooms and seeing how different teaching styles work,” Andrews said. “I won’t be surprised if I steal some of the ideas I saw this year.”
Good advice isn’t all Andrews gets now that he can hang out in the teachers’ lounge. He also gets to see school life through different eyes.
“It is interesting to hear some of the stuff the teachers talk about,” he said. “A lot of times they’d talk about the same things the students talked about, but from a different perspective.”
Andrews hopes that the 2014-15 school year brings more opportunities to substitute at Crestview High.
Bufkin said she'd been fine with that.
“I’d have Alex back in my room at any time,” she said.
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: CHS alum, substitute teacher, draws line between friend, teacher