Meet Tom Spicher

Tom Spicher has two jobs that he loves: teaching high school chemistry and raising sheep.  It's an ideal combination, he says.  "Sometimes in the evening when I come home, I just need to go out and do some manual work.  That refreshes me." 

Tom, who has been a teacher since 1973 and has taught at Huntingdon Area High School for the past twelve years, considers teaching to be his calling.  He calls his classroom "a little different."  Rather than practicing zero tolerance, he believes in second chances.  "In the church I've seen forgiveness and healing, and I've seen mercy trumping [retributive] justice," Tom says. 

"So I try to do that in my classroom.  Kids can have a bad day, they treat you disrespectfully, they act up in class, they don't do their homework.  But after I've had a run-in with a student, I'll say, 'We might have had a problem yesterday or last week, but today the board is clean.  Today is a new day.'  I do that often.  After the kids hear it often enough, they start believing it, and the classroom climate changes into something positive.