Mark Ahrens, who previously got nominated Region 8 Teacher of the Year, decides to compete for the state to make a greater impact on as many people as possible.
Ahrens started working at Texas High back in 2014 as a computer science teacher, though that career wasn’t primarily considered but rather suggested by a few of his peers. Now, he has impacted many students’ lives and received the title of Teacher of the Year for 2024, 10 years later.
“[I was] shocked, [it] wasn’t anything I expected,” Mark Ahrens said. “It was nice to know that the hard work that was put in has been kind of recognized.”
On Aug. 1, a seminar took place in the PAC for Dr. Sean Covey on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Superintendent Doug Brubaker gave the surprising announcement of Ahrens’ achievement to the whole TISD school district, but not before airing a video that a few of his students collectively made about their appreciation and fondness of Ahrens.
“[I felt] validated, I guess,” Ahrens said. “a lot of times we as a teacher don’t see what impact that you’re making, and then to hear it verbalized like that, [it] was pretty cool.”
Word spread around campus between staff that Ahrens had planned on competing for the state, seeing the sky as the limit.
“That’s just part of the process,” Ahrens’ said. “There’s several levels to this, and you’re automatically pushed to that next level.”
Though he felt this way about wanting to continue the competition, the results aren’t what Ahrens expected.
“I received correspondence yesterday that shows that I’m not actually in the finalists for the state, and that’s fine,” Ahrens said. “I was, in a way, a little relieved because there’s a lot of extra responsibilities and commitments that come with that. [It] would pull me away from what I need to be doing here on campus, but it was a great journey. I really appreciated all the attention that it brought and just whatever students had thought about it.”
Even though Ahrens had not made the State Finalists, he still has plans to impact students the same way he did before.
“I plan to just do the same thing, just show them that some of the stuff that’s difficult to do can be fun to learn,” Ahrens said. “even if you don’t use it going forward and just understand that you can do a lot more than you may think.”
