I Choose SPS: Meet Marshall Hancock, theater teacher at Reed Middle School
“I graduated high school from Mountain Grove and attended Missouri State University-West Plains for two years before transferring to Missouri State in Springfield. I ended up taking a decade off (much longer than planned) and worked in the service industry managing restaurants and then working at a call center. When 2020 hit, I found the opportunity to go back and finish my teaching degree. I got the opportunity to spend a lot of time in SPS schools as a substitute teacher, which deepened my passion for teaching and for SPS. I student taught at Hillcrest High School with Sean Berry which was such an amazing experience. Since graduating, I completed a master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Theatre Pedagogy, and I am currently working on a master's in Educational Leadership.
Student teaching at Hillcrest and working with the students there really made me love the northside. There is so much potential in the students and so much diversity. After student teaching, a position for a reading teacher opened, and I was hired. I got to experience the “Old Reed” for a semester before we moved. I started a drama club and from there we have grown. With the Reed Fine Arts Academy, I eventually had the opportunity to teach what I am passionate about, speech and theater. We are the only middle school in the district that offers theater, so I have the unique opportunity to build a program from the ground up which is exciting and terrifying at the same time. But I have so much support from my admin team -- thank you Robin, Ty, AJ and Kessler -- and the staff in our building. SPS allows me to collaborate with an amazing group of high school theater teachers (Dusty Thomas, Sean Berry, Amara Salazar, Kelsey Moore and Amanda Boes) which most other districts don’t have. Also, being able to bring my daughter here has been so great. Reed can be challenging, but those challenges come with huge rewards.
Seeing my students succeed and be proud of their accomplishments is my favorite part. I have parents thank me for my time, but their kids' passion and dedication keep driving me forward to do bigger and better things. From rehearsals, final bows, cast parties and speech and debate competitions, I stay busy. It’s all worth it, because I get to see my students have pride in themselves.”
- Marshall Hancock, theater teacher at Reed Middle School