Mr. Renaud is an AP Statistics teacher here at Dakota High School. Every day, he has a “words of the wise- beautiful audience”, so I asked him about what the underlying reason for this is, as well as what his general morals and beliefs in life are. A “word of the wise” is just a quote with an underlying meaning that he shares with his classes every day.

“My words to the wise happened by accident probably about 15 years ago when a student gave me one of their own and asked to present it to the class. It was so powerful and moving and changed the dynamic of the atmosphere in the classroom that he and other students started presenting their own quotes”. What he learned was the best opportunity to share these quotes was to present them at the beginning of the hour instead of the end of the hour because it started off the class with a “powerful view and feeling”. It makes his students feel moved and motivated to learn, as well as feeling grateful for the little things in life.

Then, I asked what his general morals and beliefs were. “As a person, I learned and have grown into who I am over the years I’ve developed my personality on my attributes, based on the experiences that I’ve had with my family friends, co-workers, basically everybody I’ve encountered in my life and that is a person who truly believes that positive actions bring joy and happiness into myself and others”. He has a life purpose and that is to do positive actions either verbally or non-verbally for others in order to feel joy and happiness, so “whenever I’m down or not feeling myself that is the go-to prescription. I will try my very best, no matter how hard, to do kind gestures in order to make myself happy. A person who just strives for joy and happiness in life by doing good deeds for others”.

In general, he is a great teacher who strives for his student’s success and will do his best with any task thrown at him.