Mr. Edmondson: A True Team Player

Ray Swidarski, Staff Reporter

If you want to meet someone who is a real team player and wants what is best for everyone, look no further than Mr. Edmondson. Mr. Edmondson is one of the newest staff members at Gateway this year. He jumped in feet first to his new role as physical education and health teacher and seems to be enjoying his decision to join our school. 

One of the skills needed to be a teacher is being a team-oriented person and Mr. Edmondson is certainly one of those people. “Doing your part and helping others when needed” helps him to create opportunities for his students to build relationships and trust with each other to ensure the entire group works well together. He is also quite an empathetic person. Mr. Edmondson says, “Understanding other people’s feelings and putting myself in their shoes helps me have a better understanding to go about things and helps me go about my daily routine.”

Although being a team player is clearly one of Mr. Edmondson’s strengths, he also states that he is a bit of a procrastinator. He overcomes this weakness by breaking tasks down, saying, “I complete [tasks] in steps, so I do not have everything all at once to try and get done. This helps but at times I still rush to get things done. As long as it’s done before the deadline! But breaking it down into steps is way better on the mind.” 

As a child, Mr. Edmondson moved around a lot. Luckily, he had a supportive family. Another thing that helped him was football. Taking part in that kind of team atmosphere helped him become the person he is today. “I wanted to make it to the NFL because growing up, football was my first love and I enjoyed playing the game. It helped me throughout childhood staying into a routine,” he says. 

Overall, Mr. Edmondson is an asset to have at Gateway. He has already learned a lot and said, “Take advantage of all the support systems here and small class sizes. It can set you up on a good pathway to future goals and aspirations.”