Not So Stern Sturm

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  Wai’anae, HI
  
  October 13, 2015
  
  It’s a Friday morning and over twenty teachers and staff members of Wai`anae High School are joined together to get their hands dirty at the Wai`anae Campus Beautification Project. Among the many teachers and staff members present at the occasion was Michael Sturm, a teacher for the subject Transition to High School.  
  
  According to Mr. Sturm, other staff members including himself “like to come out here and kind of like give back to the school”. Sturm should know because nobody “digs” a more positive learning environment other than him. He brings joy and laughter to his students in and out of the classroom.
  
  However, for inside the classroom, current student says, ”Big Mr.Sturm is like a really cool person. He’s like, makes us laugh and like, he;s pretty chill, like a really good person”.
  
  When it comes to the learning environment, another current student  feels “comfortable in his class”.  Unlike most teachers, Mr.Sturm had an early start in his teaching career. He was born in Spokane, Washington and spent his days running around the woods. Just like any normal child he attended school. In the 5th grade, Mr. Sturm was being a smart aleck in the back of class, of Mr. Ormsbee’s history class and had to come up to the front and teach the class.
  
  However, it was a “complete mess,” said Mr.Sturm.
  
  After class, he sat down with his teacher doing lesson plans, and was inspired to become the teacher and man he is today. From beautifying the campus to educating the students of Wai`anae High School, he’s a man with one motive: bettering his students.
  
  According to him, “Really just getting kids to be better, have a better environment uplifting the community [that] I live in and just you know just making the world a better place and all that happy, ‘fluffy stuff’.”

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I did not realize the full dedication teachers have for our education and the school environment.

​Amy Vitale, Reporter

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It is touching to see teachers who would go the distance to see students become successful.

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Hi'ilani Yin, Photographer

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