Pleased to meet you
Hello, my NAME is Jerry Snyder and I am the freshmen leadership teacher. I have spent the last fifteen years teaching here at West Iredell High School...my home away from home:)
I am originally from Michigan and graduated from Michigan State University in 2000. While in college I majored in Kinesiology hoping to one day become an athletic director. I've coached several sports over the years but currently I am taking some time off to focus on my family. I enjoy working with young people in all areas of life. RESPECT is one of the top values I work on in the classroom. I believe teaching is one of the most rewarding career choices a person can choose in this world. In the spare TIME I have I enjoy TIME with my wife and sons and enjoy the company of friends. |
My personal mission statement
I am here to educate, motivate, & support students in their quest for knowledge. I will teach my students the importance of six core principles in our TIME together. I will be flexible but fair. I will be honest and upfront. Most importantly, I will model RESPECT in hopes that my students learn how to be people with integrity. I want my NAME and theirs to leave a legacy.
What are the students saying about Leadership?
I wanted to thank you for helping me through my freshman year and being such a light of positivity! I still think of your cues almost daily! No one can say respect without me wanting to spell it out and no one can walk in a room without me wanting to stand up for them! I appreciate your teaching methods and how awesome you are as a person! Keep doing what you do. - Arden E.
Dear Mr. Snyder,
You are one of the best teachers I have. If it wasn't for you and everyone in our second period I don't think I would be able to make it through the 9th grade. The class is fun and teaches very important lessons. I honestly think that you're the only teacher who actually tries to understand the students. Everyone else just hands out work and writes on the board (and when they're not doing that they are on Facebook at their desk). I think that I'll never forget our leadership class. - Kevin L.
I would also really like to say that your class is one of the few classes from high school that has been constantly beneficial to me through the adult world haha. Much love Mr. Snyder. May the force be with you, always. And please never stop being awesome! - Mikel R.
I just got finished looking at your web page in the staff section and I must admit. You are truly a great teacher, who goes beyond what is expected of them. From coming in early to leaving late. I believe your biggest character trait you want to instill in your students is RESPECT which I know you have a ton of. From having the time on my hands, I often thinks what makes a great teacher and then I thought about your paper which I hold on to as a reminder from when I start teaching. Thank you for all you do, I just thought I would share this with you instead of keeping it in. By the way, you would make a great Athletic Director one day. Have a good day. - Markus C. (ALC Coordinator)
Mr. Snyder has made a great impact on my life. He has taught me about things that you wouldn’t learn in a normal classroom. You can apply things you learn in his class to every single class you ever take. He teaches you about things you will need to know to be successful in everyday life. They are things that stick with you forever. I think anyone who has ever been in his class would agree.
Mr. Snyder was my Leadership teacher my ninth grade year. When I found out that I was required to take either ROTC or leadership, I decided to take leadership because I didn’t want to wear the ridiculous “pickle suits” in ROTC. I didn’t think much about taking leadership until I met my teacher. At first, I thought he was a pretty funny, chill guy. But later on I realized he was more than that; He was our friend. He was the “go to” teacher when you had a problem. He formed a bond with his students like no other teacher I have ever had. I wish I could retake his class every year, just because I had fun in there.
Mr. Snyder has the best teaching styles I have ever seen. He is the only teacher that has ever let me lead a blind-folded person all the way around the school (including up and down stairs) just to demonstrate trust. He is the only one ever let us have paper chain link competitions outside to teach us how to work as a team. He taught us sign language, which we actually used in class. He let us have “fuzzy’s” (games that teach lessons or build up virtues) everyday at the beginning of class, which put us all in a better mood. These things are all important, and are memories that I will never forget, but they were not the most important things I learned in his class.
Mr. Snyder taught me to respect everyone, not just those who respected me. He taught me the difference in having respect and showing respect. You should show every person respect, even if you don’t have respect for them. He taught me the importance of being responsible, and the consequences of not being responsible. We did a project in his class where we had to apply for jobs (which were real jobs like sweeping the classroom or writing down names for people who were out of dress code) and earn money. With this money, we had to buy a home, buy groceries every week and pay bills. He drew names out of a can for car accidents, or other unexpected things that may add or take away from your money. We had bank accounts, and we had to account for every deposit and every time we spent money. The goal was to not run out of money before the end of the semester. Some of us had to get second jobs, and even third jobs. If you didn’t do your job correctly, you got fired and hoped there was another job opening. This project opened a lot of our eyes to how it will be in the real world when everything isn’t handed down to us. This is real stuff. Stuff you don’t learn in Algebra or English.
We had to do speeches in his class. Most of us cringed when we found out that we had to do two major speeches in his class. He chose the topic of the first one, and the second one had to be about someone we looked up to. I was shocked to find out that my first topic was “Groundhogs” and that my buzz word was “dish soap.” (A buzz word is a random word that we had to somehow incorporate into our speech) I didn’t quite understand the point of this speech at the time, but now I realize that we did it so we would learn about and teach about something we weren’t really interested in. It also helped our public speaking tremendously. I used to be really shy and never want to speak in class, but his speeches broke me of that. Speech day was the most terrifying day for all of us. We had a podium, a microphone and our thoughts. He even recorded it to go back and make sure we didn’t say “um” or “like” before our sentences. We learned proper speech etiquette and that was our day to shine. I am not afraid of public speaking anymore, and I’m actually quite good at it. I went from being too shy to speak to wanting to be a lawyer.
Mr. Snyder helped me find myself and build myself up to my full potential. My teachers, and even principle, are always telling myself and my parents about how great of a leader I am and how I always set a great example for other students and even adults. I owe it all to a man on the second story of the old building at West Iredell High School. My. Snyder deserves the Golden Apple Award more than any teacher I have ever met, and I’ve had some pretty good teachers. Please consider him, as I think my whole school would agree with me on everything I’ve said. - Cierra W.
Dear Mr. Snyder,
You are one of the best teachers I have. If it wasn't for you and everyone in our second period I don't think I would be able to make it through the 9th grade. The class is fun and teaches very important lessons. I honestly think that you're the only teacher who actually tries to understand the students. Everyone else just hands out work and writes on the board (and when they're not doing that they are on Facebook at their desk). I think that I'll never forget our leadership class. - Kevin L.
I would also really like to say that your class is one of the few classes from high school that has been constantly beneficial to me through the adult world haha. Much love Mr. Snyder. May the force be with you, always. And please never stop being awesome! - Mikel R.
I just got finished looking at your web page in the staff section and I must admit. You are truly a great teacher, who goes beyond what is expected of them. From coming in early to leaving late. I believe your biggest character trait you want to instill in your students is RESPECT which I know you have a ton of. From having the time on my hands, I often thinks what makes a great teacher and then I thought about your paper which I hold on to as a reminder from when I start teaching. Thank you for all you do, I just thought I would share this with you instead of keeping it in. By the way, you would make a great Athletic Director one day. Have a good day. - Markus C. (ALC Coordinator)
Mr. Snyder has made a great impact on my life. He has taught me about things that you wouldn’t learn in a normal classroom. You can apply things you learn in his class to every single class you ever take. He teaches you about things you will need to know to be successful in everyday life. They are things that stick with you forever. I think anyone who has ever been in his class would agree.
Mr. Snyder was my Leadership teacher my ninth grade year. When I found out that I was required to take either ROTC or leadership, I decided to take leadership because I didn’t want to wear the ridiculous “pickle suits” in ROTC. I didn’t think much about taking leadership until I met my teacher. At first, I thought he was a pretty funny, chill guy. But later on I realized he was more than that; He was our friend. He was the “go to” teacher when you had a problem. He formed a bond with his students like no other teacher I have ever had. I wish I could retake his class every year, just because I had fun in there.
Mr. Snyder has the best teaching styles I have ever seen. He is the only teacher that has ever let me lead a blind-folded person all the way around the school (including up and down stairs) just to demonstrate trust. He is the only one ever let us have paper chain link competitions outside to teach us how to work as a team. He taught us sign language, which we actually used in class. He let us have “fuzzy’s” (games that teach lessons or build up virtues) everyday at the beginning of class, which put us all in a better mood. These things are all important, and are memories that I will never forget, but they were not the most important things I learned in his class.
Mr. Snyder taught me to respect everyone, not just those who respected me. He taught me the difference in having respect and showing respect. You should show every person respect, even if you don’t have respect for them. He taught me the importance of being responsible, and the consequences of not being responsible. We did a project in his class where we had to apply for jobs (which were real jobs like sweeping the classroom or writing down names for people who were out of dress code) and earn money. With this money, we had to buy a home, buy groceries every week and pay bills. He drew names out of a can for car accidents, or other unexpected things that may add or take away from your money. We had bank accounts, and we had to account for every deposit and every time we spent money. The goal was to not run out of money before the end of the semester. Some of us had to get second jobs, and even third jobs. If you didn’t do your job correctly, you got fired and hoped there was another job opening. This project opened a lot of our eyes to how it will be in the real world when everything isn’t handed down to us. This is real stuff. Stuff you don’t learn in Algebra or English.
We had to do speeches in his class. Most of us cringed when we found out that we had to do two major speeches in his class. He chose the topic of the first one, and the second one had to be about someone we looked up to. I was shocked to find out that my first topic was “Groundhogs” and that my buzz word was “dish soap.” (A buzz word is a random word that we had to somehow incorporate into our speech) I didn’t quite understand the point of this speech at the time, but now I realize that we did it so we would learn about and teach about something we weren’t really interested in. It also helped our public speaking tremendously. I used to be really shy and never want to speak in class, but his speeches broke me of that. Speech day was the most terrifying day for all of us. We had a podium, a microphone and our thoughts. He even recorded it to go back and make sure we didn’t say “um” or “like” before our sentences. We learned proper speech etiquette and that was our day to shine. I am not afraid of public speaking anymore, and I’m actually quite good at it. I went from being too shy to speak to wanting to be a lawyer.
Mr. Snyder helped me find myself and build myself up to my full potential. My teachers, and even principle, are always telling myself and my parents about how great of a leader I am and how I always set a great example for other students and even adults. I owe it all to a man on the second story of the old building at West Iredell High School. My. Snyder deserves the Golden Apple Award more than any teacher I have ever met, and I’ve had some pretty good teachers. Please consider him, as I think my whole school would agree with me on everything I’ve said. - Cierra W.