Discipline is just what Jason Berric, Etowah’s new Earth Systems and Environmental Science teacher, needs after joining Etowah mid-September on top of his schedule of coaching a girls’ rowing team. His athletes compare his personality to a Ferrero Rocher,  a hazelnut candy covered in a hard shell but is soft once bitten into.

  “I present myself in a very sort of a hard exterior, but once you realize that, the inside’s pretty soft and gooey,” Berric said.

  Berric rowed in high school and has been coaching rowing for 15 years; he is currently coaching at the Saint Andrew Rowing Club in Atlanta. Because he is a coach and has a wife who is a teacher, he decided that teaching would fit in nicely in his schedule. Before coming to Etowah, he taught in Fulton County at Johns Creek High School.

 “I just have an affinity for wanting to work with kids, and the schedule that I work for coaching blends itself nicely for being able to teach,” Berric said.

  Although his class is still tense because of the unexpected tragic death of Adrian Brewster, Berric is working to get comfortable with his new students. They help him get used to the school, with new routines like the bell schedule.

  “I feel for them,” Berric said.

  The move  into a new school has been an unusual one, but there are many people supporting Berric along the way.

 “The teachers here have been so helpful in making the transition, especially coming in mid year. It’s been really awesome; Mr. Armstrong and Mrs. Gambrell particularly… They check on me every day, and it’s been really nice having that support here while I’m getting adjusted to Etowah,” Berric said.

  It is only Berric’s third year as a teacher, but there are many components of the job he loves. One of his favorite parts about both teaching and coaching is the moment when a student or athlete understands something.

  “When a kid figures a concept out, you can see the light bulb click on. They have a sense of accomplishment and pride and it’s those little small victories that I think make the big difference,” Berric said.

  With Berric’s intense schedule, he has been busy. As much as he loves his jobs, they take up a lot of his time.

   “It’s definitely made me very disciplined in terms of how I balance my time because I go to bed late, I wake up early, and there’s no downtime for me whatsoever right now,” Berric said.

  Berric wants his students to come out of his class with more than just a greater understanding of the course but an understanding of the world and how to succeed.

  “That’s a skill to have, and I think that if these guys can do that and advocate for themselves, I think that’ll not only for this class, but in life, they will find more successes,” Berric said.

  Berric’s classes have been through lots of change early in the year, but he is ready to help. It takes time for students to get used to changes, but Berric is ready to take on the year and lead his students to success. He rows through the rough water both physically and metaphorically in life with many new challenges ahead of him.