Students pass through the halls, voices fill the air, they begin to file into the same math classroom they have gone to all year, except a different face greets them at the door. In the doorway stands new geometry teacher Connor Bootz, welcoming students as they walk in.
After the first semester, former geometry teacher Davis Tran left to take on a new job as a flight attendant. This left students with a substitute for about a week before Bootz took the job as the new geometry teacher.
“This is my sixth year teaching,” Bootz said. “Before I came to Bowie, I was teaching at James Campbell High School, where I lived in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and prior to that, I was teaching at Dr. Kirk Lewis Career in Technical High School in Houston.”
Although Bootz used to teach in Houston and also attended Texas A&M University, he is new to the Austin area. He explains that he moved to Austin with his wife and his kid so that they could be closer to family.
“I heard that Bowie has really good students and that there are a lot of really good communities that surround the area,” Bootz said. “I think that a lot of good programs and systems are instilled into the school as well.”
According to Bootz, he originally got his inspiration for wanting to be a teacher from his geometry teacher when he was in school. Bootz explains that he wasn’t a very good student in high school, but his teacher made him value the structure of high school.
“My old teacher later became the principal of the school that I had originally worked at,” Bootz said. “When I moved back to Houston, after college and after traveling, he mentioned that he was a principal, and he said that if I wanted to teach, then I could. So, then I became a long-term sub and I really loved it.”
At his old schools, Bootz has taught geometry, multiple different levels of algebra, and statistics. However, at Bowie, Bootz took over Trans academic geometry classes, continuing on from where students left off during the first semester.
“Mr. Bootz has gone over some of the stuff that Coach Tran taught us so that we are more refreshed and have a better understanding of what we are doing,” sophomore Lauren Flowers said. “He is a great teacher. He is very kind and loud and funny, and he always seems like he enjoys his job.”
Geometry teacher Kristen Cayer explains how the transition after Tran left was fairly smooth. According to Cayer, Bootz was able to step in and start the position right away as he helped the students and continued to move forward.
“For the most part the transition has been pretty seamless,” Bootz said. “I think people and students specifically are very similar, no matter where they’re coming from. They’re very reflective of the culture and society around them. The kids here get a lot of freedom and so getting used to balancing that as to what structures are already in place has been an interesting part of the transition.”
Since joining the classroom mid-year and having previous teaching experience, Bootz has developed his own teaching approach. Bootz explains that it is important to have structures and rules in place for students and that it is important to hold everyone accountable.
“I am very energetic in my teaching style, and I’m a little sporadic or unorganized, but I’m very passionate,” Bootz said. ”I prefer to view every one of my students as a person, rather than just viewing them as one of my geometry students. I also like to try and balance every aspect of their life when I’m asking them to get a certain thing done. I also like to utilize comprehension and understanding rather than completion and busy work.”
Even though Bootz has only been at Bowie for a short amount of time, Cayer explains she has already noticed the impact that he has made on the students so far. According to Cayer, all of the students that she has talked to have seemed to like Bootz a lot.
“Mr. Bootz obviously really cares about his students, which is the best kind of teacher that you can have,” Cayer said. “I think that the kids really appreciate Mr Bootz’ patience and his ability to help them understand the material better.”
