Four new Pioneers began teaching at U-High this school year. I sat down with each of them to learn a bit more about their personalities and what they bring to the school. First up was Garrett Roth, English teacher and freshman basketball coach, who brings new experiences and ideas–including his support for Taylor Swift.
“‘Back to December’ is probably my favorite [song] and then ‘You Belong With Me’, ‘Blank Space’, and ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’,” Roth said. “That’s my Mount Rushmore of Taylor Swift songs.”
While Roth is a confirmed Swiftie, he also loves other music such as Gregory Alan Isakov and Jim Croce who sings the song “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim.” Even though Roth isn’t much of a singer, his go-to Karaoke song is “Valerie” by Amy Winehouse.
Another passion of Roth’s is sports and this passion is part of a longstanding tradition in his family.
“My favorite sports memory is a Yankees vs Twins game with my family,” Roth said. “Between the two teams, they hit 11 home runs. It was like every single inning there was a homerun or two.”
Roth enjoys watching baseball, basketball, specifically Duke, and football. If he was planning his perfect Superbowl for this year he would choose the Kansas City Chiefs and the Santa Clara 49ers.
“Those are the two best teams in football. Two of the best offenses in the league against two of the best defenses in the league,” Roth said. “Halftime performer would be Taylor Swift, anything else would be the wrong answer.”
Roth didn’t always know he wanted to be an English teacher; he began as a Speech Pathology major. However, he once forgot about a Biology test, showed up late and was not allowed to complete the test, and this led him to question this path.
“I very defeatedly put my head down, marched out of the room and everyone was just looking at me with pity in their eyes,” Roth said. “I got out of the room and called my mom and said I don’t think I wanna do this Speech Pathology major anymore. And the next year I transferred to English Education.”
Roth looks up to his teaching mentors, English teachers Rebekah Hoffman and Brian Rohman.
“They were my cooperating teachers while I student taught, and I just learned so much from them in terms of how to manage my time and plan a unit that is impactful and relevant to the students that I am actually teaching,” Roth said. “Different students have different needs and they showed me so many great ways to be gracious and compassionate towards students while still holding them accountable.”
As an English teacher, Roth’s favorite books are “The Name of The Wind” and “The Wise Man’s Fear”
both by Patrick Rothfuss.
“He [Patrick Rothfuss] is a beautiful writer, he crafts these massive worlds with so much depth and so many dark corners that leave you with questions about different things but he also connects things really beautifully,” Roth said. “I love fantasy and science fiction and he is the best, even though he has only published three books.”
Roth has never been to an actual concert. The closest he has been was a couple sound cloud rappers at the quad at ISU.
“All of the freshmen were on campus they had something called Quad-chella, and it wasn’t like Coachella at all,” Roth said. “They had these four guys and they did some songs. It was not that good, but it was fun. I was making friends as a new freshman at ISU.”
The best piece of advice Roth has heard was from his dad when he was 16: “A lot of guys are trying to find the right girl, but it is more important to be the right person for when you find her.”
