You may have seen him sitting in the back of your American Studies class taking notes, in the gym with the boy’s varsity basketball team or in Room 128 passionately talking about Shakespeare. This is English teacher Nate Frese.

With only two class periods, Frese is unlike most typical English teachers. For those who wonder what he does when he’s not teaching his two AP English Literature classes, here’s a rundown of his typical school day.

Frese does a lot of preparation in the morning before students start arriving. Once he gets to school at 8 a.m., he double checks his agenda for the day, which he sets up the day before. He makes sure that all of his handouts are ready and takes notes on what to add or change in the lesson plan. Besides that, he also checks his email and calendar to see if he has any meetings that day.

During first period, Frese teaches AP English Literature. Then he tries to devote his open second period to grading or lesson planning for this class. Third period he teaches the class again and that wraps up his morning.

Besides being an AP English Literature teacher, Frese is also an Instructional Design Strategist (IDS). This group of teachers, including Jon Bach, Jenny Eustice and Tyson Smith, collaborate and talk with other teachers about something they would like to try, like a new idea or teaching style.

“You’re just kind of brainstorming, maybe providing a sounding board or asking questions to try to get them to formulate on their own what it is they really want to do,” Frese said. “The main part of the job is to help teachers realize the thing that they already have inside of them, the ideas or the genius, the creativity … so our job is to kind of inspire that in them.”

As an IDS, Frese experiences different classes he does not teach, allowing him to gain exposure to various subjects.

“Sometimes it’s seeing classes that I don’t teach at all, like a ninth grade American Studies class. Sometimes it’s kind of like co-teaching. Sometimes it’s just sitting in the back and taking notes and observing,” Frese said. “Sometimes in the afternoon I’m just basically collaborating and talking with the teacher about something that they think they want to try.”

His favorite class he has observed is AP Psychology because he liked seeing all kinds of students in the class interacting with the complex material.

“Hearing 17-year-olds talk about psychological syndromes, theories and whatnot is just really engaging. I liked that a lot,” Frese said. “I feel like if I wasn’t a teacher, I probably would’ve tried to go into psychology, just because the way people think has always been interesting to me.”

Additionally, in order to fulfill his IDS duties, Frese regularly attends professional development meetings and meetings with other teachers. During fourth period specifically, Frese attends meetings with his IDS team. Sometimes, he meets with other teachers who don’t have a fourth period class.

“For example, this week, we have an all-day presentation we’re doing on Friday, called Pop Up PD. PD is short for professional development, so we’ve been planning that every fourth hour because that’s the only hour we have in common,” Frese said. “But sometimes I’ll try to pop in and catch a teacher over lunch … if their prep periods don’t mesh with mine, then that’s the best time to catch them.”

Besides teaching and being an IDS, Frese also partakes in several projects and committees. He is on the Language Self-Study Committee, where every curricular area goes up for review and the committee decides if the curriculum needs to be revised to meet certain district and state standards. The Self-Study Team makes sure that the curriculum is meeting goals before going under district and state reviews.

Furthermore, he is on the Equal Opportunity Schools (EOS) Committee, which focuses on increasing enrollment in honors and AP classes, especially for students who have self-barriers preventing them from signing up for advanced classes. He’s also on the Social Committee with science teacher Jenny Eustice.

“The Social Committee at West is really just Ms. Eustice, but I’ll help her out with brainstorming for silly ideas for the staff to get together and stuff like that,” Frese said.

Outside of school, Frese has many hobbies, including basketball. He is involved with West’s boy’s varsity basketball team, where he watches and breaks down opponent films for scouting purposes. He also coaches his daughter’s fifth grade club basketball team, which practices twice a week. Besides being actively involved in coaching basketball, he also likes to watch sports for fun.

“We also have season tickets to the women’s basketball team,” Frese said. “So, for example, last night, we were at Carver until 9 [p.m.] watching the basketball game, so that’s kind of a hobby, doing stuff with my kid.”

With all of his classes, projects and hobbies, Frese always has something to do, however, his favorite part of the day is when he’s fulfilling his traditional job: interacting with his students.

“It’s enjoyable to work with other teachers, but … the best part is the morning, when I get to actually teach.”

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