The moment you step into Troy Bennett’s social studies room on the third floor, you already sense the type of teacher he is. From the giant wolf greeting you on the right side of the wall to the dozens of student hand prints around the perimeter of the ceiling, Bennett decorates his room with his school pride and dedication to his students.

“I’m a huge believer in that… one should have a classroom and that they should not make it look like a hospital. It seems that the prevailing thoughts these days are to whitewash everything. In fact, they actually painted over my wolf one year and it just floored me so I actually contacted the girl who painted it and got her back in to put it on the wall,” Bennett said.

Although he holds a huge amount of pride for his room, he will soon have to leave it behind after 20 long and memorable years. District 219 made its usual teacher switches, and as a result, Bennett is relinquishing his Wolf status to become a Viking.

“It’s weird, to be quite honest with you,” he said. “They’ve always kind of been the other school, kind of like the red headed step-child that no one in your family wants to talk about. I know some of the few individuals in the social studies department, a few, not many and my boss is also going to be over there, so it’s going to be weird. I’ve got red shirts, I don’t have many purple.”

Even though Bennett is leaving West for North, he’ll always be welcomed back with open arms. If you ever had the joy of being enrolled in Bennett’s class for Western Civ or US History, there’s no doubt when you look back on the time spent in his class consisting of the game teams, Bennett’s stories and physical/mental challenges, those memories put a big smile on your face.

“I loved his class and will really miss him. His physical challenges for extra points made my days and made me sore,” said junior, Esteban Gavilanez. 

The walls of his room hold more then just paintings and hand prints, but happy memories of Bennett’s unique teaching style. Even though he’s not retiring as a teacher, and just leaving us for a new school, his teaching style will surely be missed.

“The Game” that has been mentioned throughout this article is something Bennett created a few years back with his AP US History class to make classmates more active. The class is divided into teams of four or five, where they come up with a team name and work together on projects, physical/mental challenges, studying for tests and anything else to get each other through the rough course of history. It helps students become a lot more engaged and competitive because each challenge, project and test counts for points, and the team with the highest amount of points gets an extra 3% added to their final grade.

“I think that competition plays an interesting role in education or should play an interesting role in education,” he said. “Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. And some groups work, and some groups don’t. But I also think that the idea of working in a group all semester long it gives you kind of a model of what it would be like in the business world and hopefully you are able to gain some characteristics of managing people that you’ll hopefully be able to use in the business world.”

“Having the group challenges and stuff during class makes the class fun and unique from other classes,” said junior, Lis Bowden.

Even though Bennett is only going to be a 10-minute drive away from Niles West, he will be missed throughout Niles West by colleagues and students alike. From his spaghetti challenges, marshmallow straw challenges and ‘picking up a paper bag with your mouth while balancing on one foot’ challenge, it’s safe to say that no student will experience another fun, productive history teacher like Bennett, and that’s the main reason why even though there are hundreds of teachers throughout Niles West, Bennett has made such a difference.

“He’s made my time in history the best by keeping me interested in the world as a whole,” said junior, Kris Trivedi. 

“I tease my students all the time that if I were walking down the hallway next year, they’d forget who I was, or they wouldn’t say hi,” said Bennett.

So I’d like you all to do me a favor. Whether an alum student of Bennett or current, don’t forget to give him a quick greeting, send-off message or even a nice, baked “Flaming Alaska” would do the trick to make his last few days of his twenty years of being a wolf, the best days.

Bennett, Niles West will miss you but always remember: once a wolf, always a wolf.