Mr. Coon is the Ag mechanics teacher here at Redwood. Ag is in his blood. He has been into Ag since he was a little kid. As far as he remembers, Mr. Coon’s family were farmers and cattlemen. “When I’m anywhere on a farm, first thing in the morning, it’s like the greatest thing in the world. It’s what I am meant to do.” Being an Ag teacher he gets to work with kids at a very crucial point in their life and it is “doubly good”.
Funny enough Mr. Coon did not want to become a teacher. All he wanted to do was farm or run cattle or he wanted to be a smoke jumper and put out forest fires. As he got older after high school he was going to back to the high school to help his dad who was the football and baseball coach at the time. His stepdad was also the Ag teacher. He realized he was good at working with high school students and that he inspired them. He kind of just fell into it.
Now that he is a teacher he wouldn’t want to do anything else. He has now been teaching for 20 years. After he graduated form Cal Poly, he was looking for a teaching job and found Mt. Whitney. While he was there, he met Bob Pearcy who was the Redwood Ag teacher at the time. He went back to Cal Poly to get his masters. He was working at this other job and Bob Pearcy gives him a call saying that he was getting ready to retire and that he wanted him to be the teacher. “I jumped at the chance and got hired. I never want to leave.”
His favorite quote to live by is “You gotta go go go and you can’t be afraid of stuff”. Mr. Coon teaches a lot of students everyday and he said,
“You have to assess where each kid is at every day and what needs to inspire them.” He doesn’t just want to teach his students, he wants to make an impact. To do that you have to get to know them on a personal level which takes time. If he has any gift as a teacher, it is being able to relate to the students.
What Mr. Coon loves most about Redwood is the students. The most important thing is the students walking in the door and leaving prepared. “We get the greatest students. I love the positive atmosphere. I love our traditions and I would love to see some traditions grow stronger.” His favorite tradition at Redwood is family. Everyone here at this school is like one giant family. We always take care of our own.
His greatest piece of advice to students is, “If you want to be a standout, go be a standout and work for it.” He says that if you look at some Ranger students, you will find exactly what he is talking about. He says to always work hard and be smart because you will be more successful and that you want the pride of achieving that success.
His favorite color is green because he loves really green pastures with lots of livestock. It makes him super happy. Something not a lot of people know about him is that he once talked to quarterback, Joe Montana, in the prime of his career on the phone for fifteen minutes and did not know it was him. His biggest fear is something to happen to his kids at home or to his kids here at school.
That is a great picture!!