Craig Lencer

Craig Lencer to teach Life Skills this year. 

1.What did you do before Prosper and/or teaching?

“Before Prosper, I taught thirteen years in Frisco as a life skills teacher. I’ve been doing this since 2005. Before that I was in real estate.”

2. What’s the craziest thing that has happened while teaching or in your past career?

“In my type of classroom everyday is a little crazy. My students are a little unique so they do some fun things. I had a student once who went up to an electrician we had with an eyepatch and he said ‘hey mister mister mister’ and when he turned around the kid went ‘arghhh’ with a pirate hook. We have days where we have to deal with seizures so those are chaotic. I don’t know if you’d call that crazy but we do things in this type of class that other teachers don’t have to do with medical issues, behavior issues, so every day is a little bit crazy.”

3. Favorite part about teaching?

“I love working with the kids. It’s almost like problem solving like being a detective because they learn in such a different way. You don’t just teach one lesson plan, you teach thirty different lesson plans at the same time.”

4. Goal for yourself and your students this year? 

“For me, it’s to make them as independent as possible. My students – even though we do reading, math, social studies,  and science like everybody else – my main goals are to when they’re adults they can live independently as best they can. Maybe some of them will actually have an apartment. I hope I can teach them skills so that they can get a job. It also helps the families out. The more independent my students are that means it’s easier for the siblings, it’s easier for the parents. There’s more to it than just teaching.”