The vastness of the shop leaves your eyes wandering, overhead industrial lights highlight the various machines that catch your eyes immediately, the sound of metal clanking in the back as Michael Brenner is tidying up his shop. These are the few things you can expect when walking into our manufacturing and technology shop. Also Brenner teaching his heart out or blasting music.

Teachers do more than just spew out words to students in hopes that they retain some information. They guide our brains to our fullest potential by connecting with students on a deeper level and then learning about their students to teach even better rather than just discussing chapters the whole class period. At least good teachers do; Mr. Brenner is a perfect example of this. Before working for CKSD, Brenner has had the experience perfect to make him fit for a teacher. Although he didn’t know that working on 18,000 ton ships and field work for quite a few companies would set him up with the skills to become a teacher, it paid off in the long run.

Michael Brenner is the shop teacher for both CKHS and CKMS for seven years and worked as an engineer for 25 years before becoming a teacher often in fabrication shops and use of heavy equipment out on the field, AND served in the Navy as a Submariner. He elaborated on the topic by explaining how it helped him become a better teacher all the way from the very beginning of his career. 

“Very regimented, very structured, very rewarding, it was clear I was good really early on, but towards the end just doing a job wasn’t just good enough you know?” said Brenner. “I wanted to find something else, you can see these hard hats up here…” he says as he points to numerous hardhats all in a row around his desk, “Those are for everyone I’ve worked for I call that score board.” 

“Scoreboard” refers to the corner in his classroom that is dedicated to all of the past companies he has worked for such as Nalco, Solenis, GE, GE Betz, and many more.

Just like students, teachers have another life out of school, despite the contrary belief that teachers are robots. After a long day in the classroom, Brenner enjoys his quality time at home, a big Seattle Sounders fan, and a music fanatic.

“Number one is make my wife happy so if I’m not here, which I’m here a lot, I make sure I’m taking care of chores around the house, sometimes I cook some dinner, sometimes I put some dishes away,” said Brenner. “Just make my wife happy; Happy wife, happy life.”

Brenner said he’s an avid concert-goer as well and he recently went to a TOOL concert on the 11th at the Tacoma Dome and was still able to come to school the next day and teach. 

“I love sports, I love going to see the Sounders play. I love going to concerts, I love seeing just… people,” said Brenner. “We’re all individuals when we walk in there but we are there for a reason. You could be all by yourself, within yourself, with 60,000 other people, and it’s totally cool! I am very much an introvert though I like my spot on the couch, I like my TV n all- oooo that’s a good bass line” he said as he got distracted by the music he was playing while I was interviewing him.

One would hope that a teacher that teaches hundreds of kids a day would have good people skills but there’s no doubt that he’s got it, and those skills are highly sought out for in the world after high school with jobs and pretty much anything one might run into in life. He takes that part of his teaching job super seriously and he made that very clear.

“I think that robotics is really fun and he’s an amazing teacher,” said Mikah Boikey enthusiastically, an 8th grader at CKMS. “I think just about the same.” said Brady Beard who is in the same class and grade.

“I think he plans everything really well,” said Mikah. “A bit too well,” added Brady with a chuckle. Their class consists of building things out of legos, then programming them to do whatever they want, even though it is usually just making their car go forward a foot.

All these years of experience with people and in the outside world was worth it. And it shows with his students. 

“I can’t connect or relate to someone if I’m talking to them,” he states as we shift the interview towards his teaching; “but, if we start having that conversation we start to connect and relate. And then I can start to actually teach. I don’t mind doing that. I do that for everyone of my students, we sit down and it’s literally the first two weeks and I do it because it’s really just what can I do to help them.”

He believes that the first two weeks of the new school year or semester is key to understanding his students by sitting down and talking to them, which in return, helps him become a better teacher for his students.

This connection that he makes to his students embodies the Cougar spirit more than some teachers ever could and this is what can make or break a student’s career. 

“Fail often, fail forward, and just because you fail does not mean you’re a failure,” said Brenner. “It’s what you do after that failure that will define you for the rest of your life.”