This year students and staff welcome a new teacher, Michael Jaycox, to the school. Jaycox teaches U.S. History and assists with the volleyball teams. Students may know him by the music that can be heard drifting into the hallway from room 7-114.

Jaycox has taught at many Seminole County schools, including high schools such as Oviedo and Lake Mary. He is not only new to Brantley, but also to teaching U.S. History. In the past he has taught English, world history, and debate.

“[U.S. History is] one of my favorite subjects, but I’ve never had the opportunity to actually teach it and getting to talk about my favorite stuff,” Jaycox said. “I’m looking forward to that quite a bit.”

After getting his undergraduate degree in history at Ohio State University, he furthered his education and earned a degree in education. Jaycox’s main reason for pursuing teaching was his love for working with students, and the fact it incorporates his passion for history, allowing him to have a career that includes both of his favorite things.

“I love interacting with students, that’s my favorite thing,” Jaycox said. “Getting to get to know them, getting to hear what they have to say about different topics, laughing with them, making jokes with them, it’s one of my favorite things to do.”

Along with his passions for teaching and history, Jaycox also has a love for music. His favorite genres are rock, grunge, and punk, which he expresses through his musical classroom and the posters on its door, an aspect of his teaching that students enjoy.

“I think it’s great to come into class listening to music,” junior Lindsay Van Dyke said. “Plus he changes the station every day so at least once a week there’s music that everybody likes.”

Outside of the classroom, Jaycox is an Eagle Scout, a goal he worked toward throughout high school and college, eventually taking on the role of an adult leader for around nine years. He is also an Ordained Minister as well as a youth pastor at his church where he does camps and services with the kids. He also played volleyball in his youth, and now assists players at the school.

“He’s very understanding and teaches the sport very well,” junior Taylor Bonilla said. “He helps us if we ever need anything and is always nice and knows how to get things done.”

Overall, Jaycox hopes his students get a takeaway from having him as a teacher. He hopes to set a good example for his students and when he works to accomplish a task he puts everything into it. He tries to pass on more to his students that just the history he teaches.

“I want them [my students] to go and be able to think critically about the world around them and be able to understand what impact it’s having on them,” Jaycox said. “So if it’s a political thing, if it’s a social trend, if it’s an interpersonal relationship, I want them to be able to analyze them and think about the way that they’re going through life so they can understand and react to it better so they can make better decisions.”