Teachers with Different Styles

National Sports Academy Teachers

  By: Samantha Puckhaber

----When going into college as a freshman not many no what to do when in a brand new higher level education. Some Professors have a specific structure he/she may want for their students to follow, such as behavior in class, how many projects the professor may want, essay structure, speeches etc. As a high school senior moves onto higher academics professors have higher standards. But high school seniors might be hazy on exactly what those standards are.

But the teachers at National Sports Academy feel they have prepared students very well for everything that a professor may throw there way. Each teacher at NSA (National Sports Academy) have different views on teaching, teachers such as Luke Hudak, Peter Fish, and Rob Broadfoot have all given time in telling me what they feel is their best way to teach their students.

After speaking to Luke Hudak he tells his standards for a high school level coarse. Hudak says “I look for how much understanding a student has on the subject we're studying,” and continues in saying “I also look to see how advanced their writing becomes to see how prepared they are for college grading.”

Hudak tells me he doesn't lecture as much during the winter term of National Sports Academy, “Everyone at the school is gone pretty much during the winter,” he continues saying “since all the kids are gone I prefer letting them do work.” Hudak tells me that high school is very different from the college level, but just because college classes are so much longer. The typical high school class is around 42 minutes, and the typical college class is 1 hour and 30 minutes.

“College courses a teacher can lecture and have students do work in the same time frame,” Hudak says, “as a high school teacher we don't have enough time for that.” When being asked what the hardest thing is about being a teacher in general Hudak said that he has to be able to engage his students, and has to keep his best students occupied, and have his weaker students be able to understand the material.

Hudak also believes that college is about the same level of difficulty as high school is, but in college the student just has more work that he/she must be able to finish, “College seems a lot more difficult but it's not.” Also saying that college might be more difficult to students because the professors aren't holding your hand through the whole process. “They expect you to know all the material as soon as you're there, unlike high school they aren't there to teach you the fundamentals, they expect you to know them.”

I had decided to venture out in National Sports Academy and ask other teachers their perspective on how they run their class, and how they feel college is similar or different from their ways of teaching. After talking to Rob Broadfoot he tells me “Three components that I use for my classes, core lectures, a lot of reading in and out of class, but I like to lecture I feel it helps more.”


Unlike Luke Hudak, Rob Broadfoot decides his lectures are the way to go, he feels giving to much work without explaining doesn't help the student. Having experienced two classes of Rob Broadfoots' I am able to conclude that he enjoys telling his classes about the material before they read about it.

In Broadfoots essay he says he doesn't look for the structure that an english teacher may look for, instead he tells me “I'm looking for three basic parts: a solid introduction, a main body that demonstrates strong research of the topic, and it honestly doesn't matter how many paragraphs the student may have,” but he does continue to say, “the student does have to make sure they make their point and also demonstrate they know what they're talking about, and of course they must have a strong conclusion that has their own thoughts,” he fires, “I'm different from an english teachers but that's just me.”

When asking if Broadfoot had prepared his students for college well enough he says “Yes, I think I taught my kids to think for ones self, and prepared opinions and I think I widened their horizons with different beliefs and such.” Broadfoot tells me he believes in his students, and thinks each student is capable of greatness, and believes his students are well prepared for college.

Broadfoot has a different opinion on how much more difficult college is then high school then Hudak does. Broadfoot has this to say “Expectations are much higher in college, a lot more reading at the collegiate level, and I feel college is going to be much more difficult,” and fires this “The professors aren't going to be concerned if you do the homework or not, they'll just flunk you, high school the teachers pretty much hold your hand the whole time.”

Peter Fish has the combined teaching style as Luke Hudak and Rob Broadfoot, Fish believes in speaking to his class a little more then Hudak, but less then Broadfoot. From being in his class twice I'm able to size up that he likes to speak about his material, and he loves to use metaphors.

Fish also thinks that his students will be very well prepared for college he told me “Yes my students will be well prepared, I teach them to write with structure and take responsibility for the for their own work,” and he continues to say “I give them feed back, and they get feed back from their peers.”

Fish also feels that he is an “on task person, and lectures more,” but also believes the hardest part of his job is “meeting a wide breath of students needs, some students going to Harvard and then the kids that are weaker.” From what I gather from Fish, he feels his style of teaching is more verbal, yet gives students more time to work in class as well.

Each teacher has a different style of teaching, and feels they need to prepare a student for college, because in college professors don't hold your hand. Each teacher I spoke to has said the same, and each teacher feels they prepare well for college. Luke Hudak feels that lecturing is not as important as a student doing the work and reading a bit more, but still lectures to an extent. Rob Broadfoot lectures more, and has his students do much less homework, and Peter Fish combines the two teaching skills.

Every teacher is different, and when a high school senior finally moves up to a higher education such as a freshman in college, the student will need to learn the teaching style of each professor just as they did in high school.