John Taylor (left) is now the permament physics teacher at West.

John Taylor is the newest teacher at Shawnee Mission West. The physics teacher entered a subpool of teachers at the perfect time and was able to get a job almost immediately- just after physics teacher Vicki Davis became unable to teach this year. Davis left suddenly at the start of the school year with details unspecified.

“I don’t know exactly when Davis will be back; she could be back in November or she might not be back until spring,” Taylor said.

For most of his life, Taylor has lived in Kansas. He grew up in Kansas City, and did things such as tae kwon do to keep busy. He attended Duncan’s Karate School off of Johnson Drive, where he took classes from age six until he was 18.

“My favorite part of martial arts was the good discipline,” Taylor said.

He attended Lincoln Prep High School and then Creighton to get his undergraduate degree in physics.

Taylor then attended the University of Kansas, where he went to graduate school and eventually received a teaching degree.

Although Taylor is new to school, he isn’t a rookie when it comes to teaching. He worked at the Kansas City Juvenile Detention Center for half a year in 2007 and then during 2008 and 2009.

He was in charge of assessing where adolescents were in school. In order to do this, Taylor gave the students a math assessment.

For a while, Taylor has also worked at the Kansas School for the Blind, where he taught sightless students subjects such as math.

“The hardest part about teaching there was trying to teach students more tactile things and not by writing things. I also had to tell them things in order for them to learn,” Taylor said.

Taylor still teaches at the School for the Blind, but just during the summer.

So far in just two months here, Taylor has blended in to the school atmosphere. He recently was in the science department’s homecoming float, where four of the teachers portrayed the band Guns N’ Roses for the “Welcome to the Jungle” theme.

It is uncertain how long Taylor will be teaching here, but he definitely would like to stay. He enjoys teaching high school students the most and hopes his future holds a career in teaching.

“I intend to do this for the rest of my life, it’s what I’ve wanted to do,” Taylor said.