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Mount Prospect teacher wants students to stay curious

Asking questions is best way to learn, according to Mount Prospect social studies teacher

Talk to Mark Schwarz's seventh-grade students about their teacher and you'll learn a lot about his mindset. Or, as he calls it, his growth mindset.

“He helps us persevere in doing our work. If we're stuck, to help us keep going,” said student Emily Bloss.

Nicole Karlos: “He tells us to ask questions if we don't know what we're doing. He wants us to feel confident in the class.”

Brooklyn Oliver: “He likes to do different things so we don't do the same thing in class all the time.”

Schwarz is a seventh-grade social studies teacher at Holmes Junior High School in Elk Grove Township District 59, where he's taught for five years.

He's also a motivational coach, a basketball coach, a volleyball coach, a volunteer coordinator, a father of three. The list goes on.

Watching him teach at the Mount Prospect school and listening to him talk about education, it's difficult to imagine Schwarz in any other profession. However, his first career was in the ministry. He graduated from Northern Seminary in Lisle and worked as a youth pastor at an Aurora church.

It was during that part-time job that Schwarz worked as a substitute teacher in District 59 to fill up his work day. He soon made plans to change careers.

“This is where I felt like I should be,” said Schwarz, 33, a lifelong Elk Grove Village resident.

He didn't look back. Schwarz quickly immersed himself within the district, even completing his student teaching there. He coached three basketball teams and boys volleyball, and organized volunteer events for students.

His approach in the gym and the classroom is the same.

“If you can coach kids or people, you can coach a sport,” Schwarz said. “The sport comes second.”

Each early morning practice starts with players sitting in a circle and Schwarz sharing a quote to begin the day. That quote becomes the focus of the practice. This year, his focus for players and students is the same.

“If you feel like you have to be here and you have to do this project, then you're in the wrong place,” Schwarz says. “When you show up and say, 'I get to do it,' I feel like you're in a growth mindset.”

Sitting in his classroom after students have left for the day, Schwarz keeps coming back to that theme: growth mindset. Always asking questions. Always thinking critically. Always staying curious.

He admits that even other coaches grow somewhat weary of the message. But, Schwarz says, that's how he knows it's getting through.

Part of the growth mindset means that Schwarz ventures away from the textbook. Much of his inspiration comes from the book “A More Beautiful Question” by Warren Berger, who argues the importance of asking the best questions to get the best answers.

In the classroom, that sometimes means sitting in a circle and discussing stories in the news. Other times it could be choosing a topic and covering a large dry erase board with every question that students can think to ask about it.

“If you can't find the answer to your question, it's a beautiful question,” Schwarz tells his students.

This year, he's using the 20% Time Project initiative inspired by Google. The tech company gives employees 20 percent of their time to work and innovate something outside of their normal routine. It's a practice that led to innovations such as Gmail and Google News.

So, one day a week, Schwarz lets students work on a project of their choosing.

The topics they've chosen are unique. Comparing Greek and Roman mythology. Cooking foods without allergens. Managing a YouTube channel. Researching the history of the National Basketball Association.

It's in these yearlong projects that Schwarz wants students to learn perseverance, avoid procrastination, hold themselves accountable, and remain constantly curious.

“I try to think of different ways to teach,” Schwarz said. “I feel like it's in those risks that you find some cool stuff.”

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  Holmes Junior High teacher Mark Schwarz listens to seventh-grade social studies student Manuel Murillo, 13, discuss a project during a recent class at the Mount Prospect school. Schwarz aims to emphasize a growth mindset in everything he teaches. Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.com
  Nicole Karlos, 13, and Emily Bloss, 13, students of Holmes Junior High teacher Mark Schwarz, praise him for his work in the classroom. "He helps us persevere in doing our work. If we're stuck, to help us keep going," Emily says. Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.com
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