This is Mr. Bryan Blakely’s second year at UHS after years of being a personal trainer. What made him decide to become a biology teacher? What things have gone as planned? What things have not? Students and fellow teachers share their perspective on Blakely.
Halfway through the first term and Blakely has already settled in. Teaching is his passion and he really loves the new challenges and relating to students. Blakely described it as,
Class of 2027 Deedee Liang, likes the way Blakely relates to students. She commented on the way he allows students to ask as many questions as they want. She explained that, “He doesn’t get angry when I ask him to repeat a question.” She also emphasized that Blakely sometimes helps her “understand a topic better than other teachers.”
Mr. Mike Connolly is another teacher in the UHS science department and met Blakely during the new teachers orientation. He was impressed by Blakely’s desire to learn and improve. He said that Blakely’s “desire to improve is a good trait” and is an important aspect of his personality. Like Liang who noted that Blakely relates to students, Connolly also noticed “how much he cares about his classes… and he really does care about his students.”
As a new teacher, some things were what Blakely expected, and some things were not. While he understood the biology curriculum well, he was surprised by how much more he had to understand in order to teach it. He admits “it is not as easy as just knowing a topic, you have to know how to also teach it.”
Similarly, while Liang said how well Blakely related to students, she also pointed out a few suggestions with being a new teacher. She said that Blakely, “maybe shouldn’t use as much paper,” and that “his classroom could be a little more organized.”
Connolly also noted the challenges being a new year teacher saying “it takes a lot of courage to try something new,” and that Blakely has the “ability to try new things and brings in a different style” and that he is “still trying to find his way in his teaching style.” Connolly emphasized that Blakely “is an asset to our department.”
Before coming to UHS, Blakely was a personal trainer in Las Vegas before moving with his family including his wife, two adult children and one child to Maryland. He states how he was “tired of living on the west coast” and dealing with clientele from early in the morning at a gym in his garage.
Unfortunately, Blakey’s fitness business got shut down during the Covid-19 pandemic forcing a career change. He was not prepared for this as most of his associate-friends still work in Las Vegas but he brings up how his wife is his best friend.
One of the challenges of being a teacher, according to Blakely, is “as a teacher I get up at 5am,” not the flexibility of being a trainer where he “didn’t have to get up so early.
When he decided to leave Las Vegas, he considered moving to Hawaii, but couldn’t make that happen and instead moved to Urbana, MD. Why Urbana, MD? well, according to Blakey his wife used to live there as a child and she enjoyed it. As well as, his wife was able to get a transfer from her job from NV to MD.
While Urbana is certainly not Hawaii, he doesn’t regret leaving Las Vegas and couldn’t think of anything he really missed about living there.
Mr. Blakely emphasizes Urbana is the place for him for several reasons including the weather, the green environment, and it being a lot less busy than Las Vegas.
