My name is Cole Wilkinson. My students call me Mr. Wilk or Mr. Dubs or sometimes Mr. Teacher Sir. When I was growing up my folks always told me, “you can grow up to be anything you want… just don’t become a teacher.” So I decided to take their advice and become a facilitator. Everyone is a teacher and everyone is a student, but it takes a special person to help show people that they are both and to encourage young minds to work together to accomplish any task they can imagine. It is my goal to help you become that facilitator, but if you will indulge me, I will tell you the story of how I got here.

It was 2009 and Grandpa was raising bunny rabbits for easter. All the bunnies got eye infections and he asked if I wanted to help him out. As a burgeoning biology major intent on medical school, I jumped at the opportunity. We went out to a half dozen cages each with a litter of bunnies and their mommies. All of the bunnies’ eyes were swollen shut. White and puffy. They looked miserable. Grandpa handed me some synthetic tear drops, which would help flush the infection out of their eyes and prevent them from becoming blind. I held the bottle in anticipation as I had never done anything like this before. Grandpa reached in the cage and grabbed a bunny by the scruff of its neck. It froze as Grandpa’s hand clinched its velvety fur. He gently, well as gently as one might, pushed the puss from its eyes. Each rabbit kicked whenever he touched their eyes, they were obviously in pain and I felt it every time the puss flowed unwillingly from their eyes. I handed Grandpa the eye solution whenever he needed it. He squeezed four or five drops in each and we cleared all of their eyes. They would not end up blind. We had forever changed their lives and they had forever changed mine. Standing next to them, hearing them scream, and seeing their pain, I knew that I was not cut out for the medical field. I just felt too much. So I started looking for something else I could do with a biology degree.

In Spring of 2010, I transferred to the University of North Texas and began working on a medical technologist degree. I thought, I won’t have to see the patients (and thus not see their pain) but still get to help and do cool biological stuff. It was there that I learned of a new program, Teach North Texas or TNT. The program was offering accelerated education minors for math and science teachers. I decided to sign up. My parents warned me against teaching, they said do something else, anything else, but I had experience working with youth. I worked in an after-school program for elementary students and substituted for a semester. I enjoyed that time. I had also been working at a youth camp over the summers and loved it. So I thought, why not give it a shot?

I fell in love with the curriculum. We learned the 5E model for teaching. We discussed how to engage learners and how to make class fun. Each class held a new gem of insight and I decided that teaching was really for me. TNT set up real classroom teaching opportunities each semester. I got to visit a Middle School and two High Schools as a guest facilitator. Getting into the classroom just made me want to teach even more. When I graduated I set out to find a job at a 9th grade campus. The nice thing about that particular school was the accelerated block. Students would take four classes in the fall and four in the spring. This meant that I was teaching the curriculum two times a year. In a way, I was gaining double the experience each year. It allowed time for me to refine my lessons and then get to see them in action just a few months later. It was here that I cut my teeth as an educator and facilitator.

Creativity has always been something that wells up from the inside. I found my creativity in wanting to develop lessons and lesson plans. I wanted to see my students use their creativity in class. Everyone is creative, humans are wired to make and explore, it is what makes humans the most fascinating and most successful species on the planet. My hope is to spark creativity in the learning environment. If a student uses what they learn, then they have truly learned. I began developing lessons and worksheets. In December 2015 I joined Teachers Pay Teachers and posted my work to share with teachers around the globe. In 2023 I launched a blog to talk about teaching and give in-depth instructions on how to use the work I post on Teachers Pay Teachers. I hope you can use what you find here to become the cool teacher.

Happy Teaching!