Teacher of Year connects with kids
Published: January 6, 2006
Dan Scripsema has worn a lot of hats in his 31 years at Jenison High School, but his two favorites have not changed.
His longtime passions for teaching and coaching are why he was named the Jenison school district’s Teacher of the Year, administrators say.
“He’s got just the wonderful quality of being able to connect with all kids,” said Principal Mark Dievendorf, who nominated Scripsema. “He has really demonstrated his dedication to our school, not only in class, but as a highly regarded swim coach.” [Teacher Man : A Memoir]
Scripsema, 54, has taught American history for 31 years and has been the girls varsity swim coach for 27 years. He also has coached girls swimming at Jenison Junior High for 20 years. He has been a class adviser for 16 years and was a student council adviser for 23 years.
Since his first fall at the high school, he has been the DJ for school dances. He also organized and, for years, led the high school’s annual pride day, which recognizes academic and athletic successes.
“This is what I do,” Scripsema said recently as he waited for the first bell to ring. “This is my life; the kids are my life.
“A lot of time, I just stand out in the hall and give them (students) a hug and twirl them around. I can’t imagine doing anything else than teaching. My mom’s a teacher; my sister’s a teacher, so education is in my family.”
Scripsema teaches five classes a day: freshman history and four historical perspective courses, including one that covers the 1940s to ’70s. [Lies My Teacher Told Me : Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong]
He said he teaches that history is the story of people.
“If the kids can understand what a person was like, how they interacted with people, maybe they can understand why decisions were made and why things happened,” he said.
Scripsema has a bachelor’s degree in education and a master’s degree in secondary education from Grand Valley State University.
When Scripsema walks into his classroom each morning, his board is full of notes from the girls on the swim team.
“I’m just as proud of them as I am of my two daughters, and they see how much I care for them, and, in turn, I think they give more,” he said.
During the fall season, Scripsema cooks breakfast for the swimmers twice a week.
“Scrips is a really good teacher,” said senior swimmer Mallory Lehman, who has known Scripsema all of her life because her mother also swam for him.
Scripsema said he is touched when he hears former students want their child to have him as a teacher or he runs into a former student who is now a teacher.
“Kids come up to you and say ‘thank you’ or you see them go on and they become history teachers or they go into education, and they come back and said it was because of you,” he said.
He and his wife, Linda, have two daughters.
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