One of Lakes’ new teachers this year, Mr. Walgren, was an Eagle himself until his graduation in 2019. Now, he’s back in the nest, and ready to spread his wings once again.
Joshua Walgren was born on March 3, 2001. He’s stayed in Lake County his whole life with the exception of family vacations and college. He is a Lakes alumni, graduating in 2019, and even boasted about the class of 2019 being the best class.
Mr. Walgren wasn’t interested in being a teacher until he started camp counseling around his sophomore and junior years in high school. Before that, he was thinking about working in the military or having a job in engineering.
“Everyone teaches in my family, so I didn’t want to be a teacher,” Walgren revealed. “But, then once I started camp counseling, I was like, man, I actually really enjoy this.”
When asked what his favorite part about teaching was, Mr. Walgren replied, “when I am working one-on-one with a kid who’s struggling, and somehow I say the right thing or I do the right diagram, … and all of a sudden they understand everything, and you’re like, man, I’m actually a decent teacher,” he added. “It feels good to watch kids succeed for sure.”
It was no surprise when Mr. Walgren admitted that he likes teaching at Lakes better than teaching at Antioch. “I like teaching at Lakes better because I’m here longer and I know more people,” he said. “So, I’m pretty comfortable here.”
Outside of teaching, Mr. Walgren helps Mr. Blevins out with coaching the freshman soccer team. When he’s not coaching or teaching, Mr. Walgren likes relaxing and doing anything that’s not high-stress or a chore.
Out of any superpower, Mr. Walgren would want to have precision hearing so he could hear if kids were misbehaving. If he could only listen to one song for the rest of his life, it would be either “Dancing Queen” or “Mamma Mia” by ABBA because ABBA is his favorite band.
Mr. Walgren didn’t know that he was going to be a teacher from the start, but his choice to be one has positively affected many people – especially the students at Lakes.
