The fantastic Mr. Couling is showcased in this week’s teacher spotlight. He teaches Senior Art, Advanced Art 2, Advanced Art 3, and Senior Art. Mr. Couling is a gigantic help around the school and has organized a number of fun community events, including surprise and delight, the art show, and graduation, and he plans to organize a few more this year. He is also the president of the teacher association.

Couling has been a teacher at Concord for 26 years, but prior to that, he attended Concord High School and graduated with the Class of 1990. He then attended Spring Arbor College to get his degree in Mathematics and Art, and that is also where he met English teacher Mrs. Jennifer Couling in a class they had together.

Mrs. Couling also teaches at Concord and would describe him as funny, strong, caring, kind, and genuine. Her best memory with him is “when we got married on Thanksgiving weekend, and our hotel was attached to a shopping center.  There was no parking, so we had to go through the shopping center, and it was Black Friday so the store was packed. I was in my wedding dress, and he was in his suit. We were going down the escalator, and the whole store got dead quiet and looked up at us and just started applauding.”

Mr. Couling’s favorite part about teaching at Concord is “we have some fantastic art students as seen in the showcases outside my classroom, and it’s amazing to me to see students who thought they couldn’t do something because it was too hard but actually did it and did it well.” 

What does he do when not at school? He runs his own small apparel business printing t-shirts to help support his art program.  Couling explains that,  “Business is great; we are getting a new press next week, and it’s been expanding.

It’s all set up with Concord gear in it and those who want to stop out and pick up some Yellowjacket apparel can do so.”

Mariell Bommarito who takes Couling’s senior art class and has been in his class for four years now and took a class in middle school with him. She says, “Mr.Couling is a genius and is the best teacher ever, just a teacher you would love to have, and he has helped me by finding things in my art that I need to improve, and he pushes me to be better.”

Another one of his students, Connor Keefer, who has also taken his class for four years as well as senior art last semester explains that Couling has helped him succeed through  “pure honesty, helping me through troubles in my art and even out of school like finding jobs. I feel like I can ask him questions about working at Subway and stuff… he has just has been really helpful.”

We are extremely lucky to have Mr. Couling at Concord and acknowledge everything he does for the community. Mr. Couling is an excellent teacher who genuinely cares about his students and those around him.