While some people think gym is just jumping jacks and track laps, for third-year physical education teacher Chris Barbian, it’s a chance to make an impact in the community.
That’s why Barbian – a physical education teacher for Sophomores, Freshmen, and Special Needs High school students here at Morton West – came here to begin with.
Even so, Barbian noted that while starting out, he had to earn his stripes. When he came in for an interview, he was observed and graded by Ms. Cavanaugh, the principal at Morton West High School. He taught an SEL lesson about journaling and emotions while being supervised by his future bosses, “Which was kind of nerve-wracking… but it went well,” said Barbian.
However, Morton wasn’t the first stop for Barbian in his career. Proviso East was the first district to offer Mr. Barbian a full-time teaching job, but he ultimately didn’t take it: “It wasn’t the right fit for me,” said Mr. Barbian.
Instead, Barbian said he was looking more for a job closer to home, and opportunities to make an impact in his community: something he said he feels like he’s doing at Morton.
Mr. Barbian is from the state of Wisconsin, but while substituting, he had gone to Minnesota and ended up in Illinois. Initially, he didn’t specialize in PE. “Undergrad: inn history…” said Mr. Barbian, adding that he had always thought that he’d be a Social Studies teacher since all his college classes were related to the topic of history.
While growing up, he’d always been in sports such as baseball, basketball, soccer, and football. “When I started substitute teaching, every job I got was primarily in Physical Education and… I found that I actually really liked it,” said Mr. Barbian. He went back to school to get his endorsement in PE and is now certified to teach PE and health.
One of the main differences he has had over teaching here in Morton is that when he first started, he was always anxious and a little tense, but now he is more comfortable with his students.
And that, he noticed, has gone both ways: he is always trying to encourage his students to break out of their shell.
“I think it’s kind of fun to see them try, but also break out of that shyness,” said Mr. Barbian. He tries to be lenient and joke around with his students to keep the energy and environment fun.
Mr. Barbian enjoys teaching swimming the most out of all his classes. Even though he claims he was nervous at first, “initially nervous about managing safety in the pool.” He enjoys seeing his students have fun with the unit and become brave by diving into the water. Even kids who don’t know how to swim very well put life vests on to go into the deep end of the pool.
“It’s kind of fun seeing them overcome that fear,” said Mr. Barbian.
The hardest thing Mr. Barbian had to come to terms with, was teaching special ed students with no background in the field, “overcoming my preconceived notion of what special ed is and learning to work with those students,” said Mr. Barbian. He had come to learn that, “My FSI students can do literally everything that all the gen ed kids do… it’s no different in my mind between my gen ed and special ed classes,” said Mr. Barbian.
Mr. Barbian is also a coach for the Freshman football team. He had played football since 3rd grade; he played other sports, but he focused on and enjoyed football the most. Football was also special to him because of family. “Something that my brother and I bonded over… my dad got into it,” said Mr. Barbian. Football also helped him become more marketable for future opportunities.
His retirement goals are to visit all 50 states with his wife of 13 years. They have so far been to 43 States as well as other nations such as locales in Europe, Scotland, Canada, and have been planning to go to France. They are also big Disney enthusiasts, so, as a joke, his other retirement plan is to become a Disneyland or magic kingdom skipper, driving around a fake boat on a ride called jungle cruise, yelling out goofy puns.
