VTEEA High School Teacher of the Year Josh Masley challenges his technology and engineering students with open-ended problem-based projects. Photo by Tim Peterson.
It wasn’t enough just to use the classroom’s 3D printer to fabricate Spartan helmets out of plastic. Then students of West Springfield High School Technology and Engineering teacher Josh Masley presented the helmets to teachers and faculty as gifts.
“He’s teaching his kids to appreciate other people in the building,” said Johnny Pope, an assistant principal at the school. “They have some intrinsic motivation about what they're doing.”
Masley’s big-picture approach to teaching helped land him the honor of High School Teacher of the Year from the Virginia Technology and Engineering Education Association (VTEEA) at its annual awards banquet in mid-August. Other FCPS honorees included Timothy Threlkeld of Hughes Middle School and Emre Ege of Fairfax High School.
“It was a nice honor, and felt fantastic,” said Masley, who has “never really been nominated for anything like this. There's not a ton of recognition within teaching, within the field. The main takeaway for me, from this job, is seeing the kids learn, seeing the light bulbs go off.”
Masley is originally from Pittsburg, but attended Virginia Tech and took the job at Westfield High School after graduating. He spent 11 years teaching technology and engineering there before moving to West Springfield. “It's an awesome community,” Masley said. “When I walked in it just sort of reinvigorated everything -- my passion, my desire.”
Teaching electives, Masley isn’t bound by the SOLs, but faces different challenges. One is finding ways to engage and motivate students of various ages and academic levels within the same classroom. Another is recruitment altogether. “So that's another thing I hope this award might potentially impact,” said Masley.
“We're constantly fighting for our jobs,” he continued, “competing with other electives. We feel that, in STEM, we’re the only ones that can deliver the tech and the engineering. And we feel that we're delivering the science and math pretty well also.”
According to Pope, Masley is meeting his challenges head on. “You don't micro manage the department,” he said. “You tell him what the problem is. He figures it out. He makes it work. That's what you want. I see the eagerness, the willingness to attack anything.”
Masley believes in the real-world value of the projects his 150-odd students take part in. Whether it’s designing a dam to solve a town’s flooding problem or fabricating an all-original gumball machine, students are “getting to see and experience the fruits of their labor, getting to understand the actual engineering design process,” said Masley.
Which, if they stick with it, could help land them a job at a time when STEM employees are in demand. “We do some career research as well in here,” said Masley, “get them to think about the big picture, and how they can pursue a career that will positively impact society.”