"Christopher Olsen, 7th and 8th grade osa teacher is retiring this year."--zanthe j.g., cb o., mila b., and mackenzie l., 8th grade
Christopher Olsen, a beloved teacher at Oakland School for the Arts, is retiring this year after over 30 years of teaching, 5 of which he spent at OSA. While at OSA he taught 7th grade English and 8th grade History. Mr. Olsen is many student’s favorite teachers, teaching his students to be aware of the world and have their own conception of history. Mr.Olsen is known for telling stories to his students about his time as a Aircraft Loadmaster at United States Air Force and other events in his life.
“Mr.Olsen's class has this calm environment that none of my other classes seem to have. He’s got this unique personality and teaching style that brings the whole class together and lets his students relax and focus on the lesson that he’s teaching. He often brings stories into his teaching process which really helps engage his students. He’s a really special teacher with a cool personality and I feel like there aren’t that many teachers like him out there,” said Mackenzie Luna, 8th grade student at OSA.
Interviewer: What made you want to become a teacher?
Mr Olsen: A tot of teachers, they talk about, ‘I had a teacher who inspired me blah blah blah.’ I actually kind of had the opposite, I had so many not great, mediocre teachers when I was in school. Every single class that I took, I thought to myself I can kind of do that better—and I hated school. I think I've said that in my classes before. I thought, there has got to be a better way, and so that’s kind of what my whole teaching philosophy is based on—to not be the kind of teacher that I had when I was in school.
Interviewer: What is your favorite part about teaching?
Mr Olsen: It's watching kids learn, watching kids go from not knowing how to do something to knowing how to do something. When I taught 1st grade, the coolest part was watching little kids learn how to read. It was the coolest part of the job. It's just, I'm a people person.
Interviewer: What did you do before you started teaching?
Mr Olsen: All kinds of things, I was in the military most of the time, I was a college student, I had all kinds of odd jobs throughout college, and that was pretty much it.
Interviewer: What is it like working at OSA?
Mr Olsen: It's like no other school I've ever worked at all. Out of all the schools I've ever worked at, it's the most like being part of the community. But the biggest thing is that the teachers really really have a lot of respect for their students, more than anywhere else I’ve worked.
Interviewer: What is your biggest achievement in life?
Mr Olsen: My biggest achievement in life, well I’m hoping I haven't had it yet, I'm hoping my biggest achievement is still coming. Probably completing 30 years of teaching and not going insane. Well, I wouldn't say the not going insane part, but definitely the 30 years of teaching.
Interviewer: Why do you think the teachers at OSA respect their students so much?
Mr Olsen: I think it's just part of the culture. I noticed that on the first day that I was hired here, that there was a huge difference between the way that teachers talked about their students in the teachers lounge compared to the way that teachers talked about their students at other schools. When you listen to an OSA teacher talk about their students you have to stop and think for a second are they talking about their students or are they talking about their own kids. It's really different at OSA the way that teachers interact with their students.
Interviewer: What is your favorite success story in the classroom?
Mr Olsen: Probably being able to talk freely about current events and trying to get my students interested in why they have to learn something as opposed to I have to learn this for the test.
Interviewer: What do you feel most passionate about?
Mr Olsen: People understanding how this country is supposed to work, people understanding how economics is supposed to work, people understanding history, people understanding the values that this country was build on as far as democracy—everybody having a voice, leaders being held accountable—andI feel like it's my job to make sure people understand that.
Interviewer: Why did you choose to teach history?
Mr. Olsen: I've always loved history, I've always been somewhat of a history nerd from a very early age, maybe 10. I majored in history, I feel comfortable teaching it, and I like it. It’s hard for history teachers though, because you spend a lot of time trying to convince your students why something is important.
Interviewer: What is your favorite class you’ve ever taught?
Mr Olsen: Eighth grade history here. I have had the most fun in some of my 8th grade history classes.
Interviewer: Did your military experience lead you to teach? How so?
Mr Olsen: Yes, because in the military they start training you for leadership on the very very first day that you join and a lot of leadership is teaching, and alot of teaching is leadership. And I think a lot of the ways you hear me talk to a classroom is the exact same way that I would talk to an airmen when I was a sergeant in the air force. And you know, you’re not yelling or screaming or anything like that, but you're saying it very matter of fact: this is how things will happen.
Interviewer: Who inspires you?
Mr Olsen: As far as historical figures, probably one of my favorites was, and I think I might have mentioned this is one of my classes, Joshua Chamberlain from the Civil War. He basically has to make a decision to not execute a group of deserters from another regiment and that decision to not execute those deserters worked very well because they ended up using those soldiers in the actual battle. A lot of people would think that he was being too lenient, but they ended up needing those soldiers, and if he didn't have those soldiers, they could have lost the battle. It basically it was his compassion that won the war.
Interviewer: What is your favorite hobby?
Mr Olsen: I come from a family where hobbies are like your second job, and my hobbies have ranged from rebuilding Volkswagen engines to bicycling, swimming, and now music. My biggest hobby at the moment is music.
Interviewer: How many instruments do you play?
Mr Olsen: Just one, the base.
Interviewer: What is your favorite music genre?
Mr Olsen: Specifically? It's called ‘60s garage rock and also blues are my two favorite genres.
Interviewer: Do you have a specific favorite song?
Mr Olsen: “Surrender” by Cheap Trick is one of my favorites. It's whatever I happen to be learning at the time. Right now ive been playing around with some Beatles songs. Base is kind of funny because you're not really playing the song, you're sort of supporting the musicians that are in the song.
Interviewer: What is your favorite thing about OSA?
Mr Olsen: My favorite thing about OSA is, and this goes back to the whole teachers respecting their students. At a regular school, the only part of the kids you see is the part they are worst at. And I wasn't a very good student and I have had students that have a tough time. Other middle schools that I've worked at, that's the only part of them that I see. Which isn't good. At OSA I might have a student who's having a hard time at school. They might not be the best students, they might get in trouble a little bit, but then I go to a performance, a Lit Arts reading or a show like Metamorphoses and it just blows me away. Suddenly now, this student who was struggling in my class, I see them in a completely different light. And suddenly I realize ‘ok, this kid can be motivated.’ And that old saying about, ‘every child can be successful,’ you really see that at OSA because you see kids doing the one thing in their life that they are absolutely best at: just performing.
Interviewer: What values do you uphold in the classroom?
Mr Olsen: My favorite value is perseverance. My whole thought is, given enough time, if you keep working at it, you will figure out the answer. I think that when you figure out an answer on your own, you're gonna know it quicker than if you were told and had to write it down, and then memorize it for a test.
Interviewer: Is there anything else you'd like to say?
Mr. Olsen: About the inspiring part… my students. My students have inspired me immensely over the last five years.
“Mr.Olsen's class has this calm environment that none of my other classes seem to have. He’s got this unique personality and teaching style that brings the whole class together and lets his students relax and focus on the lesson that he’s teaching. He often brings stories into his teaching process which really helps engage his students. He’s a really special teacher with a cool personality and I feel like there aren’t that many teachers like him out there,” said Mackenzie Luna, 8th grade student at OSA.
Interviewer: What made you want to become a teacher?
Mr Olsen: A tot of teachers, they talk about, ‘I had a teacher who inspired me blah blah blah.’ I actually kind of had the opposite, I had so many not great, mediocre teachers when I was in school. Every single class that I took, I thought to myself I can kind of do that better—and I hated school. I think I've said that in my classes before. I thought, there has got to be a better way, and so that’s kind of what my whole teaching philosophy is based on—to not be the kind of teacher that I had when I was in school.
Interviewer: What is your favorite part about teaching?
Mr Olsen: It's watching kids learn, watching kids go from not knowing how to do something to knowing how to do something. When I taught 1st grade, the coolest part was watching little kids learn how to read. It was the coolest part of the job. It's just, I'm a people person.
Interviewer: What did you do before you started teaching?
Mr Olsen: All kinds of things, I was in the military most of the time, I was a college student, I had all kinds of odd jobs throughout college, and that was pretty much it.
Interviewer: What is it like working at OSA?
Mr Olsen: It's like no other school I've ever worked at all. Out of all the schools I've ever worked at, it's the most like being part of the community. But the biggest thing is that the teachers really really have a lot of respect for their students, more than anywhere else I’ve worked.
Interviewer: What is your biggest achievement in life?
Mr Olsen: My biggest achievement in life, well I’m hoping I haven't had it yet, I'm hoping my biggest achievement is still coming. Probably completing 30 years of teaching and not going insane. Well, I wouldn't say the not going insane part, but definitely the 30 years of teaching.
Interviewer: Why do you think the teachers at OSA respect their students so much?
Mr Olsen: I think it's just part of the culture. I noticed that on the first day that I was hired here, that there was a huge difference between the way that teachers talked about their students in the teachers lounge compared to the way that teachers talked about their students at other schools. When you listen to an OSA teacher talk about their students you have to stop and think for a second are they talking about their students or are they talking about their own kids. It's really different at OSA the way that teachers interact with their students.
Interviewer: What is your favorite success story in the classroom?
Mr Olsen: Probably being able to talk freely about current events and trying to get my students interested in why they have to learn something as opposed to I have to learn this for the test.
Interviewer: What do you feel most passionate about?
Mr Olsen: People understanding how this country is supposed to work, people understanding how economics is supposed to work, people understanding history, people understanding the values that this country was build on as far as democracy—everybody having a voice, leaders being held accountable—andI feel like it's my job to make sure people understand that.
Interviewer: Why did you choose to teach history?
Mr. Olsen: I've always loved history, I've always been somewhat of a history nerd from a very early age, maybe 10. I majored in history, I feel comfortable teaching it, and I like it. It’s hard for history teachers though, because you spend a lot of time trying to convince your students why something is important.
Interviewer: What is your favorite class you’ve ever taught?
Mr Olsen: Eighth grade history here. I have had the most fun in some of my 8th grade history classes.
Interviewer: Did your military experience lead you to teach? How so?
Mr Olsen: Yes, because in the military they start training you for leadership on the very very first day that you join and a lot of leadership is teaching, and alot of teaching is leadership. And I think a lot of the ways you hear me talk to a classroom is the exact same way that I would talk to an airmen when I was a sergeant in the air force. And you know, you’re not yelling or screaming or anything like that, but you're saying it very matter of fact: this is how things will happen.
Interviewer: Who inspires you?
Mr Olsen: As far as historical figures, probably one of my favorites was, and I think I might have mentioned this is one of my classes, Joshua Chamberlain from the Civil War. He basically has to make a decision to not execute a group of deserters from another regiment and that decision to not execute those deserters worked very well because they ended up using those soldiers in the actual battle. A lot of people would think that he was being too lenient, but they ended up needing those soldiers, and if he didn't have those soldiers, they could have lost the battle. It basically it was his compassion that won the war.
Interviewer: What is your favorite hobby?
Mr Olsen: I come from a family where hobbies are like your second job, and my hobbies have ranged from rebuilding Volkswagen engines to bicycling, swimming, and now music. My biggest hobby at the moment is music.
Interviewer: How many instruments do you play?
Mr Olsen: Just one, the base.
Interviewer: What is your favorite music genre?
Mr Olsen: Specifically? It's called ‘60s garage rock and also blues are my two favorite genres.
Interviewer: Do you have a specific favorite song?
Mr Olsen: “Surrender” by Cheap Trick is one of my favorites. It's whatever I happen to be learning at the time. Right now ive been playing around with some Beatles songs. Base is kind of funny because you're not really playing the song, you're sort of supporting the musicians that are in the song.
Interviewer: What is your favorite thing about OSA?
Mr Olsen: My favorite thing about OSA is, and this goes back to the whole teachers respecting their students. At a regular school, the only part of the kids you see is the part they are worst at. And I wasn't a very good student and I have had students that have a tough time. Other middle schools that I've worked at, that's the only part of them that I see. Which isn't good. At OSA I might have a student who's having a hard time at school. They might not be the best students, they might get in trouble a little bit, but then I go to a performance, a Lit Arts reading or a show like Metamorphoses and it just blows me away. Suddenly now, this student who was struggling in my class, I see them in a completely different light. And suddenly I realize ‘ok, this kid can be motivated.’ And that old saying about, ‘every child can be successful,’ you really see that at OSA because you see kids doing the one thing in their life that they are absolutely best at: just performing.
Interviewer: What values do you uphold in the classroom?
Mr Olsen: My favorite value is perseverance. My whole thought is, given enough time, if you keep working at it, you will figure out the answer. I think that when you figure out an answer on your own, you're gonna know it quicker than if you were told and had to write it down, and then memorize it for a test.
Interviewer: Is there anything else you'd like to say?
Mr. Olsen: About the inspiring part… my students. My students have inspired me immensely over the last five years.
