Mr. Witte

By: Lauren Kramer, Grade 12

The first time my classmates and I had this class, I remember vividly. I came into class with a total “I don’t want to be here” mindset. And Mr. Witte picked that up quickly. As he explained what the class was about, he noticed that my facial expressions showed I didn’t want to be there. 

He called me out for it. “Lauren is it?” he said.

 “Me?” I asked. 

“Yes, do you want to be here?” 

I was speechless. I just shook my head yes. 

At that moment, I had a feeling that he and I were not going to get along well.

As periods went on and the students started to understand what the class was going to be, my classmates and I connected to him. Second semester, I signed up to be in a class called the Leaders Mindset taught by Mr. Witte. Mr. Witte was a basketball coach, math teacher and he taught an elective class that he created called Leader’s Mindset himself at Arrowhead. A pass or fail class that I thought was going to be an easy credit. I was wrong. This class is more than just a pass or fail class. It is a class where students dive deep down to figure out who we are as people. And what we can change to make school, work and home a better place for everyone. But this class made me think more about myself as a person thanks to Mr. Witte.

Every single day, we would do something called mindfulness meditation. We took five to ten minutes a day closing our eyes and listening to a podcast that helped us relax and think about our day. Because we all dealt with some type of stress, anger, anxiety and we all just needed a break from school and everything revolving around school or personal life. 

There are two main things from Mr. Witte that I remember. One: every time I saw him in the halls, lunch or even at the coffee shop, he would ALWAYS stop and say hi. No matter what he was doing. He would stop and talk. Ask how we are doing and how everything is even if we saw him the day before. This made me feel like I was meant to be in his class and to be at this school. He made not just me, but a majority of the students' lives he has been a part of feel like they are someone. Someone who has meaning and someone who feels that they deserve to be there. And the second thing that I learned about just being in Mr.Wittes class, is this equation… 

E+R=O

E, stands for event. R, stands for response. And O, stands for outcome. Which means, the event of something happening and how you react to that event equals the outcome of the event. 

Thank you Mr.Witte for helping me change my personal mindset to things that are always positive.