Everyone in school has some sort of favorite teacher, even if they won’t admit it. For some students it’s the new Ceramics teacher this year, Mr. Troup.  Many students at Wilcox High school don’t know who Mr. Troup is because they either don’t take his Ceramics class or haven’t seen him around the school. 

  Mr. Troup is a teacher that was born and raised here in Santa Clara, California. He is a social and fun person to be around, especially during class. Mr. Troup got his fiery passion for ceramics in college when he went to San Jose State to look for the right career path. A series of amazing sculptures made by his own two hands decorate his classroom, giving inspiration to students in his class. As a ceramics teacher, Mr. Troup really shows the amount of love he has for the art. He states “Usually I feel very meditative, I primarily like sculpture. I feel like I’m in the zone, I just put some music on and relax.” Mr. Troup admits to ceramics being frustrating at times, but when spending time and testing your patience with art, one can end up with a beautiful project that can last many years.

Although he is a new teacher at our school, he has been a paraeducator at Wilcox for almost ten years. Mr. Troup even graduated from Wilcox High School. He says, “I just really like the community here, the teachers, students, the energy, the atmosphere, the admin is very supportive. It feels like a family.” He is always in a positive mood showing up to school everyday, and makes all students feel very comfortable and expressive in his class.  As the years go on, students always have some sort of ceramic project to do in his class. Mr. Troup creates a safe space for students so their creativity can go wild through ceramics. He enjoys talking to the students and seeing what sort of clay creation they make even if students are doubtful about their project. Mr. Troup always has a way of pointing out every detail of a students art and complimenting their work. Wilcox student Naydelin Ocegueda says, “He’s like a really good teacher that you actually really do get to learn from when it comes to projects. He also is a very good person to talk to if you need something to talk about.” Students are very appreciative to be in the class and to have a fun teacher like Mr. Troup to talk to during class. 

Every teacher has a life outside of school, but most people never really get much insight on their hobbies and activities. Other than Ceramics, Mr. Troup has a very active and fun time when he’s not teaching. One of his  main  hobbies is surfing. He says, “The thing that consumes  most of my time outside of school is surfing. I watch a lot of surf videos, my friends surf, I think about it a lot all the time.” Mr. Troup also talks about how he grew up skating after his older brother gave him a skateboard for his 12th birthday. Most of the people and influences in his life come from the skating and art community. Another thing that a lot of students like about Mr. Troup is his amazing sense of style. Most of his outfits give off indie skater with a touch of a granola vibe. It can be nice to see a teacher around school with a very modern, trendy style. Mr. Troup mentions that he goes to local thrift shops like goodwill, ebay, and salvation army to get his cool clothing. 

When going into Mr. Troup’s classroom music is always playing around to inspire and ease his and other students’ minds. He says, “The music I usually play in class consists of a lot of funk but I am trying to branch out a lot.” Having a teacher playing music always brings joy to students, he even lets them listen to their own music if they really want to. 

It’s good to have a ceramics teacher like Mr. Troup that allows students to roam free in their artistic abilities with sculpting. Future students at Wilcox will be very lucky to have a teacher like Mr. Troup. He is a social and nice teacher that really connects with students. He truly makes his classroom a good safe space to be creative and one’s self.