<em>By Arianna Bekas
Mr. Anchel is known for many things around the school. From his success rate pertaining to the number of students who pass the AP world exam; to his style of teaching that incorporates interesting facts to grasp the student’s attention, and if you’ve heard of Anchel then you know that he is probably the biggest star wars fan out there. However, there is something that people who have never taken Mr. Anchel’s class wouldn’t know, and that is that Anchel has love for the subject that he teaches and he truly does make an effort to help students as much as possible, and that is one of the many reasons why Anchel is a pretty popular teacher with students.
Can you talk a little bit about the subjects you teach and how long you’ve been teaching them?
This year I teach AP world and AP psychology. This is only my second year with psychology but I have been teaching world history since my career as an educator started. So lots and lots of years.
What initially made you want to begin teaching?
I had a really good teacher in high school that really turned me around. My world history teacher actually, and it’s what developed a love for education and it’s what made me decide to want to be a teacher myself.
What is your favorite aspect of teaching?
I love the content, I love being able to discuss it, and it’s always fun to be able to have multiple classes to discuss it with because no two classes ever go through the lesson the same way. So every day is a new experience.
Did you work in a profession before teaching, or do you have a job on the side now?
Well in addition to being a teacher I am also a realtor. But teaching has always been my main profession, straight out of college.
Do you participate in any student affairs or organizations at Apopka?
I’m the sponsor of the Junior Class Council and our main responsibility is planning all the events for the junior class, in addition to that is prom which is a big one every year. I also do chess club.
What made you interested in Junior Class Council and Chess Club?
Well the same thing, I always enjoy working with kids and it’s kind of fun to be able to go outside of the classroom as well. So not just in the academic field but in the extracurricular sense. Also, I’ve been playing chess ever since I was a little kid. My dad taught me, and it’s always fun to pass the torch to the next generation.
How are you taking to being a new father?
Well minus the lack of sleep it’s going pretty well. My daughter is awesome, I’m biased, but she’s the most amazing thing in the world. It’s going really well. My wife and I are really taking to being parents, and like I said as long as I can get more sleep it would be better.
How do you feel that kids have made this spoof of a religion out of you?
I don’t even know how to respond to that one. I would imagine that its origin is on the humor side. I really don’t follow it, I really don’t know too much about it other than the fact that people regularly reference it. So I’ll take it as a sign of respect… I hope.
Since you’re a history teacher I was wondering if you could meet any historical figure who would it be and why?
Uh, that’s a tough one. I mean there’s a huge magnitude of people I would want to talk to from history. You know in psychology this is called the persecution of choices, which is there are so many options to choose from that it makes any one of them seem almost impossible. Alexander the Great seem like a pretty cool dude to talk too. He was able to experience, at the time, what was considered to be most of the known world and crossing from one area to another as one culture coming in contact with others and spreading ideas. That would be a pretty cool dude to meet up with.
To close this out, do you have any words of advice you would like to give that you think students should follow?
Best advice… pay attention now because those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it… at summer school!