Pasco High is home to many great teachers, one of which is Mr. Kucheryaviy, better known as Mr. K. Mr. K is a history and psychology teacher who is very well loved by his students. Students appreciate him for being relatable and being interested in the student’s education, them succeeding in their personal life and in school. Mr. K likes working with young adults. As mentioned earlier, he teaches both history and psychology, so one of our first questions was which class he likes to teach more. He prefers psychology because it is an elective.  “Students that take that class actually want to be there,” Mr. K stated, and “it is a fun hands-on class where students learn about a subject they did not know before.” 

Teaching is very different from what he thought it would be. Teaching opened his eyes to many issues and to things he should and shouldn’t do. During his first year of teaching, he had the roughest graduating class which helped give him perspective. It really showed him the things he could improve on and how to better control his classroom. “Sometimes it’s the little things that make a bigger difference.” When there is a problem in his classroom, he likes to “make a big deal out of the little things so that the big problems do not arise.” As a teacher, his biggest challenge has been finding a way to motivate students who would rather be elsewhere. He has learned that he must tap into his students’ lives in order to motivate them to be successful in school. “When you are under pressure you either swim or you drown, I’m a swimmer,” having his first year as the hardest one made him realize that he needs to look for solutions and not beat himself up because of the problem. He never quits and never shy’s away from a challenge. Something he learned as a teacher and would like to share with other teachers is “teach your students what they NEED to learn.” Being a teacher can have a positive impact on your students. Advice Mr. K would give to graduating students is “Know who your true friends are, make real relationships … because in real life you get to choose your friends … don’t buy into the hype that you need to party you don’t need to do anything just make sure you are successful and have a plan for your future.” Mr. K has a passion for teaching so although he wasn’t having students in his classroom, he found a way to continue teaching. During quarantine Mr. K found himself spending time with his community in church, he helped with Bible study as well as Vacation Bible School. With COVID happening he had to get creative with his teaching, he taught his student’s trough zoom and some YouTube videos. When he was not helping his church, he found himself buying a boat. He went boating A LOT with his friends. He also helped out back home doing some landscaping.

Something that makes Mr. K stand out is his taste in fashion. Mr. K likes to look good, so he always makes sure to be well put together. He let us in on a couple of fashion tips, “what looks good on someone doesn’t mean is going to look good on you... Knowing your body and what colors go well with your skin tone is important” is something Mr. K shared with us, as well as making sure that “Your clothes have to enhance your body not the other way around … dress for the occasion”. We also got the insight that light colors do not compliment Mr. K as good as dark colors do. Did we mention that Mr. K has great skin? Well, if you didn’t know, now you know. We asked Mr. K to let us in on his skin care routine. A couple of products he gave us were, African soap or also known as black soap is good for your skin because it does not take your essential oils from your skin, eye cream and face moisturizer SPF they are also anti-aging, vitamin C, you need to drink a lot of water as well. We want to thank Mr. K for giving us this interview and to you readers for taking the time to read about this amazing teacher.