New building substitute Connor Domke elaborated on his experiences so far managing the Media Center. 

Q: What do you do at Penn-Trafford High school?

A: I supervise the Media Center… I am the building substitute in charge of the Media Center.

Q: What qualifications did you need in order to work at P-T? 

A: I went to school for History and Education. I’ve had work experience working with children. I’ve had student teaching. I think this particular job benefits for me being kind of extroverted. I try to be very nice to the students. I like reading people.

Q: What inspired you to do what you do today? 

A: I got into teaching because of my love of history. I wanted to do something that worked with history, and I think through my working and teaching I’ve grown to love the teaching part of it even more. So it feels like I am very lucky that I get to both do a job I love in a subject that I love. 

Q: How do you support students in the media center?

A: A lot of what I do is just helping with day-to-day tasks, like kids need printing. I help like 10 times a day. I think just by keeping the space nice and orderly and easy to use, that’s helping kids work on what they need to work on. I also run the tutoring services here, which hasn’t gone on a lot yet since it’s still the beginning of the year, but peer tutoring is also what I’m kind of in charge of.

Q: Is there any reason you chose to work at P-T? 

A: My roommate in college went to P-T, and the school was never really on my radar, but talking to my roommate about it, they had a good experience here. I also heard good things about Mr. Aquilio. So I thought that this would be a good school to check out, and thankfully they had an opening for me, and it worked out.

Q: What is your favorite part about working at P-T?

A: The kids have been really nice. I think being in the Media Center I was kind of worried. Like, “oh it’s a shared space, kids might come in and throw stuff or yell,” but I haven’t had that. I think I’ve had to talk to kids like twice the whole year so far, and I’ve been here for 2 months. It is astounding how respectful and just well behaved they are generally.

     I am of the belief that if you give [students] trust and respect they will work to earn it. And I try to be as hands off for the space as I can, and I feel like, I don’t know if they’re like this already, but I feel like I’ve been rewarded in that the kids have been great.

Q: What is an interesting fact about you?

A: I like rock climbing.

Q: Where are you from and where did you go to school?

A: I am from Plum. I went to Plum High School. When I graduated from Plum, I went to Chatham University which is in Pittsburgh.

Q: How does a student become eligible to work in the Media Center? 

A: Just use the Flex Pass system, as long as you are in 11th or 12th grade, you are allowed to come. Just don’t be a jerk or break anything.