Jeffrey Devero has been a social studies teacher for over 13 years. He has developed a reputation for his enjoyable personality along the way.
When asked to use three words to describe himself as a person, Devero said, “fairly calm, easygoing, and affable.”
It is common knowledge among former students of Devero that he is personable and humorous. However, this was not always the case.
Devero’s first year as an AP teacher was “extremely intimidating.”
“I think I had some of the strongest students,” Devero said. “Obviously, every AP group [of] students are far smarter than I will ever be at this age. I’m not even going to sugarcoat it. I’m not gonna sit here and deny it.”
The memorable students were Alexander Harmata and Amanda Sun. Other than the fact that they were both enrolled in Devero’s AP class, Alexander and Amanda both earned a perfect ACT score the summer before their senior year.
“They were truly sort of like salt of the earth sort of people. So it was so nice to know that one, I was being challenged to step up my level [as] a teacher, but they were also super accommodating and understanding with a first-year AP teacher,” Devero said.
Interestingly enough, according to a study by the University of Missouri College of Education and Human Development in 2022, positive relationships between students and teachers contributes to academic success.
Devero admitted to not being as prepared during the beginning of his career.
“You just have to acknowledge [that] sometimes you just make mistakes,” he said.
Honesty has been a key component of Devero’s teaching.
“I don’t know everything. I have learned a lot over my career, but I’m still learning, I hope students take that with them [so] that they should also be continuing to learn as well,” Devero said.
Devero’s elaborate descriptions of his past students revealed his ability to create such wholesome connections with his students.
“They were clearly on another intellectual plane, but they were so down to earth,” Devero explained.
He continued to describe his students fondly.
“There was no sense of arrogance. There was no sense of condescension when they interacted with some of their other classmates or students. There was a strong sense of humility,” he said.
Devero said that there exists an unfortunate reality where people linger on the negatives more so than the positives. The AP students definitely made a positive mark on Devero’s teaching experience.
“You overlook a lot of the good that’s happening around you because of that,” he said.
Despite the hardships, Devero always tries to focus on the good.
“I would just say, everything can be a little bit better if you put in just a little bit of effort, you know, and that’s just a basic aspect of humanity.”
On an even deeper level, Devero said, “While it’s good to take care of oneself, when you are completely self-involved, you kind of lose sight of the reality of things. And then become more disgruntled when things don’t happen to go your way.”