Travis Horton

Tell us why you became a teacher

The simple answer to why I became a teacher is because in whatever job I did prior, I would end up in a trainer role. The detailed answer is two-fold. I had a life changing interaction when joining the Border Patrol that made me realize what I did not want to be (learning by subtraction). The other experience is a slow burn from my high school English teacher who predicted where I would be in the future. When I ended up in that exact scenario ten years later, it inspired me to teach.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

I've done a lot of things in education, from running a ropes course to teaching in Russia. My most memorable is a five year period where I was awarded grants every year to run high school seniors through an adventure education program where we would take inner city students to the mountains of west Texas and Northern New Mexico to camp for four days, learn about the environment and the stars, and climb a 12,000 foot mountain. We presented the hole program as a metaphor for life.

What would you do with the $25,000?

I'm fan of the quote, "Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world," by Gustave Flaubert. Whether it be personal travel or creating opportunities for students to travel. I'm building a living history lab. We have a tipi that students learn how to put up. We obtained indigo seeds from Mount Vernon, so students can learn science through agriculture and making dye. I also have a program where we teach STEM through building guitars and learning to play them.