In this month's Staff Spotlight, we are highlighting someone who wears many hats and takes on a lot of responsibilities at their school, and he does it all with a playful, easy-going personality. He's a teacher, multi-sport coach, advisor, and someone who is spoken very highly of by students, teachers, and most anyone at his school. This month's Staff Spotlight subject is Daniel Russell, CTE Digital Media & Communications Teacher at Palmer Ridge High School.
What drew you to work in D38?
I’ve coached at Palmer Ridge since 2016, and at that time I was doing my student teaching. I realized it was a great community, and I really enjoyed the kids and families I was working with through coaching. I then initially got a job in Falcon, working for my teaching mentor. Then I went to Lewis Palmer Middle School and then came to Palmer Ridge. I was mostly drawn by the community up here and wanting to develop something special with our kids and our programs.
You have a lot of titles. What are all of your responsibilities, and what all do you do at Palmer Ridge?
I’m the CTE teacher for Digital Media, which means I teach all of the Adobe classes, from Photoshop to InDesign, Illustrator, Premier Pro, and our Broadcasting class. Then I do “PR-TV,” and we put out episodes every single day. Yep, every day. I’m also the student council advisor, the head coach for track & field, and the assistant coach for cross country. I also run all of the Instagram and Facebook pages for PR Athletics. It’s a lot, but it’s fun. It’s a lot of things, but I think the best part about it is all of those things help keep me involved with so many groups of kids at PR. Almost any single kid walking down the hall here, I’ve talked to or I know at least something about them. And that’s just part of trying to get everyone’s story out there. Trying to get all of those stories out really helps to show the larger community that’s here at Palmer Ridge. As long as kids feel heard and seen, and know that there’s someone that actually cares about them, they’ll run through a wall for you. And that’s really people in general. So, it’s a lot of things on my plate, but to have those deeper connections with a ton of different students, that makes it worthwhile.
Wow, you do “PR-TV” every single day!? Do you have a crew of students who run that?
Yes. It’s my first hour class. They come in, and we film two to three episodes per day. They are responsible for getting all of that footage, and they run the studio completely themselves. Then we have a student who edits and puts together the episodes. I just have to proof it, which is really nice. At this point it’s kind of just a self-perpetuating machine where the students know what to do. We have some pre-planned stories. Like one we do, usually on Wednesdays throughout each season is called “Into the Den,” and it’s like a deep-dive look into each of our sports. We’ll go interview the head coach, and like three or four of the players. We’ll get footage of practice, and then we have one of those features each week. The students do a really good job with it.
Out of all these things you do at PR, do you have a favorite thing you are a part of?
I do love track. I took over as head coach here three years ago, and this will be my 16th year coaching it. It’s a lot of fun. I really, really enjoy it, and we’ve got a heck of a team this year. We should have multiple state placers in shot put and discus. We’ll have a couple in the 100 and 200. Our 4x100 relay took second at state last year, and we’re returning the majority of those boys. We also have an amazing hurdler and jumper in Nathan Moller. We’ve got some great vaulters. It’s going to be a lot of fun this year.
How do you hope your students or athletes think of you as a teacher/coach or remember you as a teacher/coach?
The biggest thing with my class, and I try to market it to kids, is you’re walking out of here with real skills. They test for the Adobe certification exam. That’s their final exam. They’re getting actual skills that they then take into the workplace, and it’s things that they’re excited about. I hope that they have a good time in the class, but they’re also learning new skills. So I really hope they feel like they’re getting something more than just a grade. They’re walking out with skills, and also with a certificate. As a coach, I feel that my job is to help prepare them as best as I can for life. We talk to them constantly about our three main values; character, class, and work ethic. I tell them all the time, “I hope we win, but if not, it’s completely fine.” At the end of the day, if you are a good human who cares about other people, and works hard for what you get, then I know I’ve been successful as a coach. Whether we win or not. If you have at least those main values, you’re going to be putting yourself on a pretty good trajectory no matter what life throws at you.
Is there anything you would like to say, or a message you would like to share with the rest of your school?
To the kids, you guys are great. Just keep being the excellent humans that you’re being. Study for your finals. To the staff, I feel like we have an amazing staff here. They really help me a lot with things like letting me know what’s happening around the school and when things are happening. It allows me to know about all of the amazing things that not only our kids are doing, but our teachers are doing as well. It’s a really great staff, and I’m really proud and honored to be a part of it.