The teacher in the spotlight includes a teacher that the writer would like to recognize. Mr. Chelednik is a ninth-grade geometry teacher at the Clearfield Area Junior-Senior High School.

Q: When did you start your teaching career?

Mr. Chelednik says: “I started my teaching career in the fall of 2012 right here at the high school.”

Q: What made you want to be a teacher?

Mr. Chelednik says: “I wanted to be a teacher because I actually loved high school unlike a lot of people, and I had a math teacher that I really looked up to.  My dad is also a teacher in Brockway so he probably also influenced me.”

Q: What is your favorite part about being a teacher?

Mr. Chelednik says: “My favorite part about being a teacher is that although I take my job seriously, I don’t have to act 100% serious all the time.  It sounds silly, but I want students to smile.  A lot of our student body here have a lot of troubles in their lives, and I think that just getting them to feel like smiling is more important sometimes than getting them to know every little thing about Geometry.”

Q: Did you always plan on becoming a teacher?
Mr. Chelednik says: ”I didn’t plan on being a teacher until I was a senior in high school and I was told I had to figure something out to do for the rest of my life.”

Q: What are some of your hobbies outside of school?

Mr. Chelednik says: “Outside of school I like to lift weights and spend time with my family.”

Q: How has teaching changed you as a person?

Mr. Chelednik says: “Teaching has made me realize that teachers learn as much if not more from the students as they do from the teachers.”

Q: Is there anything else you would like our readers to know?

Mr. Chelednik says: “I would also like anyone who reads this to know that what you do does matter.  The choices you make even at this stage of your life do matter.  Try to make the people around you happy, and I believe that you yourself will become happy as a result.  You are not insignificant.  People including the teachers here see you and they do care about you, even if you don’t think that they do; and they want you to succeed.  Don’t ever think that what you do doesn’t matter, because you do matter.”