Mike Talbott, a math teacher at MSHS, is retiring after the 2024/2025 school year following his 11 years of teaching at the school.
Before starting his teaching career at MSHS, Talbott took online education courses in order to obtain his teaching certificate. After completing those courses, Talbott student taught at MSHS in 2014 for a math class. “I sat in all those classes every day,” Talbott said. “I was only required to come five hours a week, but I came in every day, all day long.”
After his role of student teaching, a position opened up for a math teacher at MSHS, marking the start of Talbott’s teaching career at the school. “The teacher at the time said that she was going to quit and she was going to teach International Baccalaureate in Japan to Japanese students,” Talbott said. “So that opened a position, and I said I was interested and got the job.”
Since then and throughout his 11 years at MSHS, Talbott has taught many classes which include, Pre-algebra, Trigonometry, Algebra I, calculus, Algebra II, Algebra II Honors, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Physics, and a Success Skills class.
He says that his Calculus AB class has been one of his favorites to teach. “I always enjoyed my calculus AB course the most, partially because I felt most comfortable teaching that, because I taught that in college for a few years. But it’s also the students,” Talbott said. “The students that come in there are very good mathematically, even the weakest students in that class are still above average, and they’re motivated. They generally are good students, not all, but most generally.”
Talbott’s other favorite classes to teach were AP Physics and Trigonometry. He enjoyed physics because of how students get to apply mathematics. “Seeing kids actually apply mathematics to physics problems is the closest thing we have had to engineering here at the school,” Talbott said. “I’ve got my undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, so I’ve always enjoyed that one too.”
And while Talbott specifically liked physics due to the application seen in math, he enjoyed Pre-algebra specifically because of the students. “They are the salt of the earth kind of kids,” Talbott said. “Many of them have a lot of challenges in their life. It’s not just mathematics. They were always interesting because of their backgrounds and the struggles they have outside of the classroom, and it’s always enjoyable to see them learn something against all the hardships they’re dealing with. For the most part, not all of them are experiencing hardships, but the majority do, and so that was always interesting.”
Previous to becoming a teacher at MSHS, Talbott attended the United States Military Academy West Point and taught there for three years. Following that, he moved on to work in the military for thirty years, which he says he enjoyed. “At West Point, there’s a commitment of five years. You have to stay in the military for five years,” Talbott said, “I thought that was going to feel like each hour was five years, but I enjoyed the military so much.”
After leaving the military, Talbott wanted to start teaching. “My duty to honor the country that was instilled in me a long time ago was to come in and teach young people and hopefully prepare them better to be adults and be successful in life. So that was why I started to teach,” Talbott said. “I knew that I could have something to offer, but I also knew that teaching was going to keep me abreast of what life was still about from a young person’s perspective.”
Talbott says that he was specifically drawn to MSHS because of the students and the small town atmosphere. “The kids are just so good, even the kids that aren’t good students,” Talbott said. “It’s still in their heart. I think they’re still good kids and that’s what drew me here.”
Some things from Talbott’s previous careers that he has implemented into his teaching here at MSHS are his fast grading style and boards, an activity in his class that gives students the opportunity to solve problems and present their thinking, which is something Talbott acquired from West Point. “Boards help you speak in public and verbalize what you’re thinking about, and it helps everybody understand,” Talbott said.
Some advice that Talbott says he would leave for students and teachers is to establish standards, make them very clear, and hold to them. He also highlights the importance of being very organized and grading papers faster. “Grading work is a vehicle for communication back to the student,” Talbott said. “It’s not just to check the block or get a good grade. It’s that vehicle for feedback. And I don’t think most of the teachers understand that. They just see it as a requirement.”
Talbott’s post retirement plans include doing lots of volunteer work including one at the Rocky Mountain Youth Leadership Program and coming back to the school to do scoreboards for various sports and to see students. “I think once this year’s freshmen graduate, I probably won’t be as interested in doing that kind of thing,” Talbott said. “I just want to see the kids I’ve seen in the classroom and watch them as they mature through high school.”
His plans also include a lot of traveling to places like Moab, Hawaii, a golfing trip, a cruise, and then Disney World. “I gotta manage that with the time that I give for volunteering, which I don’t have any problems with,” Talbott said. “I volunteer all the time, but I don’t want to overload my plate, so I can’t fade into the sunset gracefully.”
Ace Fridman (11) has had Talbott as her teacher for the past two years and has taken his Calculus AB and BC classes as well as being a teacher’s assistant for his current Calculus AB class. She says she feels disappointed that Talbott is leaving because of his teaching abilities and how that affects other students. “I’m kind of disappointed also for everyone else in the school,” Fridman said. “Mr. Talbott just knows how to teach and he understands the intricacies. I just feel like he’s the teacher whose lectures have always made the most sense, and I’m a little disappointed that my sister and other future students won’t get that.”
Fridman also says that she not only thinks the math department will be greatly affected, but also sports and activities throughout the school. “I think unfortunately, we’ll lose one of our greatest supporters in sports and activities, and I think Key Club, which also organizes a good portion of our school activities, will also take a big hit,” Fridman said. “I also feel like the math department as a whole will take a hit, because this is the third year in a row we’ve lost one of our longer time teachers.”
Anna Conrad, MSHS’s principal of three years, believes that Talbott has had a great impact on students at the school. “I think that Talbott has had a monumental impact on students, families as well as staff members, and I think that that is encapsulated in his leadership within the math department,” Conrad said. “He’s also one of the most accessible teachers in terms of providing time for kids to come in before or after school, during lunch, during his planning period and following up with tutoring.”
Conrad also says that he has done a great job working with the math department and building leadership. “He is really diligent around creating alignment across classes and really being thoughtful that we are growing as educators as well,” Conrad said.
After 11 years at MSHS, Talbott says one of the things that make this school unique is the students, and he says that through his teaching he has learned many things from them. “One of the biggest things I learned here was not so much about teaching, but what is healthy and beneficial to young people,” Talbott said. “People care about each other, and they’re there to help each other and support each other.”
