The Blue and White interviewed Mr. Harwood, an AP Literature teacher new to APK. We discussed why he chose to teach AP Literature since before he taught Debate and English. We also asked about some of his background before teaching at Apopka High School.
Mr. Harwood begins by explaining the complex journey of how he got to where he is now. Starting with all the places he lived as a child; “When I was young, the biggest thing that I wanted to do was fly airplanes. I wanted to be a pilot. My dad was in the Navy and then when [he left] the Navy, he took a job teaching in the Navy. So I lived [in] a lot of different places. I lived in the San Francisco area, San Diego, Seattle, New Jersey, just on the edge of the DC area, and in Virginia where I graduated high school. A few places.”
Living in so many places, you are bound to create some meaningful perspectives. Mr. Harwood let us in on his. “One thing that I’ve found is that no matter where you are, there is something that’s good about it. You know, even if you see a lot of bad things, like one place where I lived, I won’t mention that (Ahem~ New Jersey). But there’s good things everywhere.”
The number of places he’s lived does not stop in the United States; “I’ve lived in Japan and in Taiwan. In addition, I’ve been to China, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Canada, and there may be a couple more. Sometimes I had to go for things that I was involved in. There may be a couple more.”
Considering his worldyness is Mr Harwood a secret agent in disguise? He then goes on to talk about his experiences living in a foreign country; “In Japan, I was teaching English for a school that taught English as a second language. [I taught students] from age three up to my oldest student who was in her 80s and was an atomic bomb survivor. In Taiwan, the list is too long. I have a lot of friends [in Taiwan]. I also make connections to the culture and the history. I worked for a few years as a docent in the National Palace Museum there. I also learned how to sing!” He says he’d love to revisit Taiwan. “Right now I don’t have any plans. So maybe years from now [I’ll] maybe go back to Taiwan.”
Mr. Harwood spent his pastime in Taiwan being a docent. He begins by explaining what that is like, “I worked in the museum giving tours and also helping with information or things as a volunteer that came up.”
As Mr. Harwood is now a literature teacher, many of you probably want to know how or why he got to teaching it. He says; “I love literature because you know, with growing up and moving to a lot of different places, I’ve always liked reading and I’ve always been able to do it fairly well and get into the stories. You get into a good story and just everything is gone.”
Mr. Harwood is also very adventurous and has many pastimes: “Well I do love reading. I’m playing with my daughter I also like things like hiking and canoeing. I would say one thing is to learn how to learn. You know, because you can go to many different things. And what we get in high school, and what we get coming up in here teaches us how to think about things. When you get technology changes–they didn’t have cell phones when I graduated high school. Okay, they didn’t have that nice app. But you learn how to learn, so you can learn how to use that and grow.”
The Blue and White learned so many things about Mr. Hardwood that nobody would’ve known without asking. From traveling state to state, to traveling across the world it is safe to say Mr. Harwood lives a fulfilling life.
