Photo: Coaching Anikin Glassmire at a game in 2018
Mr. Chillot is a familiar face at Schuylkill Valley; whether teaching AP Calculus and Statistics, or coaching the football team.
What is your favorite thing about teaching and coaching at Schuylkill Valley?
“This answer is easy. The students at Schuylkill Valley are the best. Families are very responsive and supportive. The kids give you their best effort and are honest with you. Same with coaching. Players listen to you and for the most part, do what they are supposed to do.”
How have your students been rising to the occasion?
“One of the things our PYEA club (I am a co-advisor with my wife, Lisa Chillot) does every year is hold a Mini-Thon in support of the Four Diamonds Foundation to combat childhood cancer. Since we couldn’t have it this year (or our Powder Puff game), our officers came up with the idea of a virtual spirit week for our district. Kids dressed up for the various themes and submitted pictures which we posted on our Instagram site. It was a lot of fun and we included our Donor Drive link if anyone wanted to donate to Four Diamonds:
https://fourdiamonds.donordrive.com/event/schuylkillvalleyhsminithon
We have raised over $750 so far.”
How has the transition to online learning gone?
“The transition was definitely a learning experience. I have always been pretty good with technology, but this situation forced me to come up with different ways to present my material. Two of my classes are AP classes (Calculus BC and Statistics). Since the AP tests were now going to be changed, I had to approach these classes much differently than originally planned. We did a lot more zoom video lessons for them and I ended up using the College Board AP site much more than I thought I would. So, in a way, I guess that was a new project. My senior finance class was already project based, but we had to cut back on the number I had planned because some of the information was going to be found through discussion or in-class speakers coming in. Overall, I have learned a lot about online learning, but it has been difficult.”
What are you most excited for when classes are in person again?
“I believe a lot of us will be more appreciative of being able to come to school and be involved with a lot of the activities that we may have taken for granted. It will be great to actually have real live conversations with students and teachers and to just be able to help kids again. As a coach and club advisor, it will be a lot more fun to be active and do things in our sports and activities.”
