New architecture teacher brings real life experience to the classroom

JagWire: What are you most excited about your new position?

Sean Endecott: I’ve got a bunch of new students that I’ll be meeting, it’s a new school to me, it’s a new program to me a little bit and I’m new to teaching, so [I’m excited for] lots of new and different experiences. 

JW: You’re new to teaching so when and how did you start teaching?

SE: I come from industry, so I was building before this: building houses, building multi-family projects, and I have substituted and been on construction advisory boards with the Olathe school district. I got into teaching because I like it, but also because everybody thought I was good at it. [They] thought I was good with the kids, the students. That’s why I’m doing it. I like to stay sharp and keep doing what I’m good at.  

JW: What drew you to Mill Valley? 

SE: The staff was huge for me when choosing to go ahead and make the jump to Mill Valley. I’m also in the district. My daughters both go to Starside Elementary, so it’s exciting to still be working in the same district, having the same days off. 

JW: What led you to a career teaching architecture?

SE: My dad was a builder, so I grew up going to work with him. [My dad] passed away, which got me even more serious about doing even more construction and design stuff. I was just drawn to it. I’ve been doing real estate and construction my entire career and life. Now, as an adult, I’ve been involved with it for eighteen years. With architecture, I’ve always loved drawing. I loved the idea of seeing something all the way from the design phase to completion, and architecture and design you can do that. You’re involved in the whole process. 

JW: What’s something unique about you to help us get to know you?

SE: I’m a pretty open book, so I guess we’ll get to see. I’m going to share a lot of the experiences I had out in the real world; everybody keeps calling it the real world experience. As much as I can, I’m going to talk about some of the things that we’ve done in construction and building. 

JW: How has your real world experience helped you as a teacher?

SE: I was working with a bunch of different customers and clients, and every one of them was not familiar with what we were doing, so it was always an educational process. It was a lot of repetitive teaching them how the process works and teaching them how I work. It was actually very similar to how teaching works. I’m finishing graduate school and learning how to teach, but I feel like my understanding from everybody is [that] I’m doing pretty well as a teacher.