April 2021: Mr. Stuecheli
April 29, 2021
April’s Panther Spotlight goes to Tim Stuecheli, an 8th-grade P.E/Health teacher who has been teaching for 14 years, 12 of which at Glasgow.
Going back to his childhood, Mr. Stuecheli was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He was adopted when he was less than a year old and brought here to Fairfax County. Recently, in his free time, he’s been trying to find out his background by using Ancestry. He found that he’s part Hungarian, 2% Native American, and 7% Portuguese.
When asked what he likes the most about teaching, he quickly answered this. “Interactions with the kids. I’ll tell you this right now, I miss seeing all of you guys in there.” He says that he strives to maintain a fun classroom. Students from his previous classes probably remember the laughter and rock music that often filled his classroom walls. “I didn’t care. It’s just seeing everyone having fun because to me having fun makes school more enjoyable.”
Mind you while Mr. Stuecheli is a wonderful teacher, that was not his first career choice. Before deciding to become a teacher he was majoring in IT at George Mason University. He was in the Associates and Applied Sciences which is in the field of microcomputing, specializing in web design. Although he was planning on going into the field of IT, he said that his mother convinced him otherwise. When he was 17 or 18 his mother asked him ‘why don’t you become a teacher?’ and at first he was a bit surprised, but then he went to become a counselor at Wakefield Rec Center. “Within the first week, I knew that’s what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.” So he finished his IT degree and started his P.E. degree.
Covid-19 sure did throw a wrench in everyone’s plans but Mr. Stuecheli is rolling with it. “It can be a little difficult, but it’s not as bad for a lot of things, because you know with my IT degree on there I kind of know-how to work two different things.” He also acknowledges how hard it still is even with his background in tech. “But it’s kind of difficult because I’ve watched people stare at the computer screen and ignore all the people who are in the classroom.” His advice is to just plow through until we get back to the so-called “normal” state from before.
Outside of school, other than finding his roots, Mr. Stuecheli is a basketball coach and enjoys participating in different sports. Right now he’s got himself caught up in a sport called “Disc Golf/Frisbee Golf”. It’s a game where there is a stick (instead of a golf hole) that has a chain that will catch a frisbee/disc. So you throw the frisbee/disc across the golf court to have the chain catch it.
Overall, Mr. Stuecheli is a talented and fun teacher that strives to make learning enjoyable for his students, even in this hard time.
Ruth "Katte" Tewodros is an 8th grader at Glasgow Middle School. She was born in Ethiopia, but has lived half of her life in Virginia.
This is her first year in journalism. She loves to play sports, participate in competitions, and try new things.
Saron Amdemeskel is in 8th and goes to Glasgow Middle School. She was born and grew up in Virginia. Her family is from Ethiopia and she has been there multiple times. She speaks Amharic and celebrates Ethiopian holidays. She likes to read and write and that is one of the reasons she decided to join Journalism Club. She plays the clarinet and is in Symphonic band. She also has a really big fear of spiders.
Dorian Horvat
Dec 10, 2021 at 4:56 pm
This is such a great article! Extremely well written!!