Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
NORTH SALT LAKE — A Utah man is steps away from becoming "America's Favorite Teacher," as the nationwide contest narrows down its top five this week.
Cole Wilkes, of Foxboro Elementary School, is currently in first place for the Reader's Digest contest that will award the winner $25,000 and a trip to Hawaii. He said he is honored to have been nominated because teaching brings him so much joy.
For the past nine years, Wilkes has been teaching third grade at Foxboro, with a very unique style that often includes wearing bow ties and colorful clothes. He says dressing the part of the fun teacher is an outward reflection of his goal to teach his students to "live out loud."
"I like to live out loud — and living out loud, to me, means expressing myself all the time," he said. "Why blend in when you can stand out? If you're standing out and people notice you because you are dressed differently, I think you get more attention and people listen to you more when you're vulnerable like that. I also feel it teaches my students that they can be free to express themselves, too."
Leslie Albrecht, an office assistant at Foxboro, has had two children in Wilkes' class and agrees he is a favorite — for many reasons beyond his appearance. This is saying a lot because Albrecht's experience with Wilkes happened during two very difficult years for teachers: his first year teaching and the COVID-19 pandemic.
"When Cole started teaching, it was in the middle of the school year, and that's when my oldest daughter had him," she explained. "She was his guinea pig class; but even still, he was amazing from the get-go… we were amazed at how good he was with all the kids and how easy it seemed for him.
"My other daughter had him during COVID ... he didn't let that stop him," Albrecht continued. "He did videos where he dressed up as superheroes, and he really made it so fun. I would help my daughter with her work during COVID and I was always interested to see what fun thing he came up with that day."
Wilkes knows a thing or two about video production because, before becoming a teacher he worked in broadcast journalism. He said he had goals of sharing good news with the world but often found himself in the position of discussing a lot of difficult subjects. He began his journalism career after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and, as his career went on, he said he realized he wanted to look for the good and share it with others in a meaningful way.
I like to live out loud — and living out loud, to me, means expressing myself all the time.
–Cole Wilkes
"I did radio TV broadcasting and I absolutely loved it, but I couldn't really get to where I wanted to be with that," he said. "I loved the creating part, but the hard news, I didn't love that. I'll be honest, I felt like we covered so many stories that just weren't heartwarming and weren't moving people forward. So, when that didn't pan out, I was home and I substitute taught and I really loved it.
"I loved working with the kids, and it felt like time went by so fast. Teaching is the only job I've ever had where my days flew by."
A growth mindset
Time may be flying by for Wilkes — and it is likely due to his mindset of constantly moving forward in a positive direction. In fact, something he says he tries really hard to instill in his students is a growth mindset and positive outlook on life despite challenges that arise.
Challenges ... like math.
"You know, I never thought I'd like teaching math," Wilkes said. "But when you start doing games with the kids and they start getting competitive at math, it's so much fun. I never thought in a million years I would see a kid cheer for a math game, but when you're playing the games with them and they're all excited and they're all involved, it's really cool."
Albrecht agrees, students in Wilkes' class enjoy learning. She also said the students just really love "Mr. Wilkes."
"The kids love him," she said. "Every time my kids see him around the neighborhood, they go up and hug him. But all the kids love him. Even in the lunchroom, every single day there are kids who go and give him a hug. I know when Cole's coming in because some kids will jump out of their seats to go give him a hug."
Moving on
Wilkes not only teaches his students about having a growth mindset, but he exemplifies it. After nine years teaching elementary school, he will be teaching art at Mueller Park Jr. High starting next year. While it's sad news for the upcoming students at Foxboro, it is good news for many who get to see him again, at a new school, Albrecht said.
"My daughter is already saying that if she doesn't have him for art, she wants to request him," she said.
Wilkes said when he hears these types of things, it brings tears to his eyes.
"I don't have kids of my own, so each of those kids I consider to be my kid," he said. "You want what's best for them, and when I see them do great stuff later on, it brings a tear to my eye. When I told my students I was leaving third grade, I started to cry and then they started to cry. But then one of them said, wait, 'that means we can have you for three more years!'"
Wilkes said that if he wins the award for America's Favorite Teacher and the $25,000 prize money, that he wants to use it to expand his YouTube series to share his love of learning with even more students.
Wilkes is currently in first place, though, voting ends Thursday, to narrow the pool to the top five. To vote for Wilkes, visit americasfavteacher.org.
