An active educator who has worked as both a history teacher and a cross-country coach, Michael Stanton, history teacher, is now stepping into his 16th year in teaching. Mr. Stanton began his teaching career at Florida Private Christian School, where he taught essentially all subjects due to the minimal number of students and staff. Simultaneously, he worked as an adjunct professor in several colleges. Yearning for a lifestyle that would grant him more freedom from his work, Mr. Stanton transferred to teaching public schools in Florida for 14 years.

After living a relatively routine life, Mr. Stanton decided that he needed another change and therefore sought out opportunities in international teaching. His career as an international teacher began in the American School of Guatemala, his previous school. Mr. Stanton is now one of the four advisors for Model United Nations (MUN) and is already thoroughly impressed by both the competence of the debaters and the passion of SIS students in general. Aiming to develop the students’ learning skills, rather than their memorization abilities, Mr. Stanton hopes to demonstrate that history can also be fun.

“I have never had a [large] set of students who always put work before play,” Mr. Stanton said. “Because I believe that it is [important] to get all the work done before the ‘play’ starts, I will not leave school until all my work has been finished. That way, I can dedicate all of my time at home to my family. I [feel like] SIS students go by the exact same [philosophy]. I see students doing assignments on time, talking to other teachers and taking their studies seriously.”