Mr. Hollis is a Science teacher at Greenwood High School for 9th grade. He has been teaching for about 20 years. He has been teaching at Greenwood for 2 years and claims that it is his favorite school out of the four he has taught, including Bowling Green High, Bowling Green Jr High, Connect Christian Academy (a small Christian school), and Greenwood High School. Other than teaching, Mr. Hollis runs a cattle farm at his house where he maintains and takes care of cattle and horses. He says that he does not like the job better, but jokes that cows are quieter than students.
Hollis’s favorite subject to teach in science, which is the only subject he has ever taught, is genetics because “students usually have some pretty significant background.” He described how students can relate to the content. For example, when a student has blonde hair and both of their parents have brown hair, he claims that “it’s so easy to make personal and relevant connections” for students. He also added that it is just a fun subject to teach because it is not just remembering a bunch of facts. On the other hand, Mr. Hollis’s least favorite subject to teach is Physics because it is not his strongest content area, and he has a hard time explaining it to students.
When asked how his class is different from other teachers’ classes he replied, “I really don’t know. I’ve not been in other people’s classes. Every teacher’s classroom is a little bit different.” He talked about how he has heard about many other teachers who are more strict, but it just depends on what their rules and expectations are in their classroom. Mr. Hollis joked about how he should be more strict and wrote down a couple rules we give as an example that other teachers may have that he does not, implying that he may start to do the same. In a more serious way, he states that he does not consider himself easy but easy to get along with in class.
Mr. Hollis says that the only thing he would really have students know before they come into his class is that he is a pretty genuine person and is honest about most things, implying that he will just tell things as they are. He says that after about a week of being in his class, you know how he is, and he tries to keep things light. He explains that he tries to be/is understanding to students. He gave an example that if there was a new dress code in school where no one could wear yellow, he would understand the students’ side and think that it is an unnecessary rule, although he does have to follow the rules. But, other than this information, he says that he does not have a lot that he would just want students to know because he is a pretty “private person.” Overall, Mr. Hollis is a great biology teacher, and a very understanding one too.
Mr. Hollis with his “BEWARE OF HOLLIS” sign, taken by Mr. Hollis
