Mr. Wills is a former coach and current teacher of Greenwood High School. He’s a southern, lowkey, no nonsense kind of guy. He says he chose this school because he “lives in this community and (he) knows a lot of the families whose kids go to Greenwood.” He saw an opportunity to give back to this community with an open position for a teacher at Greenwood, letting him teach his beliefs in life.

He tries his best to make his teaching style “student centric,” starting every semester by confirming that his students “like to learn and like history,” by telling them history and learning aren’t necessarily limited to school or the education system. They can be about family history or learning something you want for your own sake. He builds his classes off of learning for the sake of learning. That way, all of the students pay attention to whatever he is saying.

Mr. Wills understands that “students will only listen to you if they know that you want them to benefit” from the information you give them. If students have no good incentive to attend to anything you say, they simply won’t. He works with younger people planning to become teachers, telling all of them that piece of advice.

He says that “Greenwood has created a positive culture,” becoming a skill-based and critical thinking-based school. They prepare their kids for the rest of their lives opposed to giving a letter. He claims if the school continues to approach education with this mentality, both Greenwood and its students have a good future lying ahead for them. 

Editors: Emmaline Hill, Ajdin Salihovic