Once Robert Hansen retires at the end of the school year he wants to stay involved with the community and possibly continue coaching. He also is going to have more family time and watch his grandkids grow up.
“I’m just going to enjoy it. Hopefully they’ll let me coach a little bit, even though I’m retired, but we’ll see,” said Hansen. “I also have grandkids, so I’m going to try to watch their sports and other stuff. Right now though I have no plans.”
The first year doing anything different is going to bring challenges and changes, that’s why classroom settings and teachers are very beneficial. But for Hansen the changes and growth in kids that he sought was in a gym and since college he has never strayed from that.
“My first year, everything was brand new and I had changed my major to education at the end of my sophomore year, so it was really kind of sudden,” said Hansen. “When I first came here I had just student-taught PE but I had enough science classes to teach in the classroom, I just never actually did it.”
Hansen grew up in El Paso, Texas and went to a very large high school where he was surprised daily with all the new faces he saw. The goal was to always go back and find work there but a close community and small school became his end game.
“I was getting married and needed a job, I had grown up in Texas so I was planning on moving back there,” Hansen said. “I thought I’ll just teach for one year and then go find a job in Texas, but when I got here I really liked it. I love the slower pace since I went to a big high school growing up and being in a small community and small school gave me a really great feeling.”
Every student has teachers who impact their lives and once that student has grown up and had their own kids they start wishing that their children find a teacher similar to the one that they had. For the students that Hansen has taught that wish probably came true. Multiple generations have been touched by him and can see how much he cares for each student he teaches.
“Hopefully it’s that I’m someone who liked his job, liked teaching here and enjoyed the people,” Hansen said.
