Each month, the Blue & Gold Newspaper will select one inspiring teacher to be featured for “Teacher of the Issue”, this honor goes to an educator who has demonstrated a true care for students and their futures. This month, Earle McAuley, a true academic and dedicated faculty member of Gulf Breeze High School has been carefully chosen. Coach McAuley has taught at Gulf Breeze for 11 years and even earned Teacher of the Year in 2022.
McAuley was raised in Charlottesville, Virginia and graduated from East Carolina University, dedicating himself to teaching the future generations, he has taught in West Florida, Memphis TN, Chapel Hill NC, and Winston-Salem NC. Currently, McAuley teaches an even split of 9th grade English and AP Literature, totalling 6 classes.
In addition to teaching, McAuley, coached basketball & football at Gulf Breeze, A fun piece of trivia from Coach McAuley is that he was the “first ever girl’s weightlifting coach,” and up until this year he was the head of the boy’s lacrosse team.
Inside Coach McAuely’s classrooms he teaches dedication and perseverance, he focuses on what his students will actually face in their future, whether it be preparing them for college or advancing their writing style. Part of his AP Literature course includes college preparedness, focusing on the application process and helping review and form an exceptional college essay.
When asked why he pushes his students so much McAuley commented, “I think it is absolutely the most valuable skill set you can have leaving highschool or any skill set is…the idea of how to work hard and to have success at hard things is far more valuable than just sugarcoating everything and saying that life is easy peasy, because it is not.”
Outside of school, McAuley continues to encourage positive mindset and healthiness, he enjoys fishing and running marathons, completing 5 marathons so far, he likes to go on runs with his friends early in the morning, even saying, “the joke is my friends and I wake up at 4:30am on Saturdays and go for an 8 mile run!”. Aside from a healthy physical life outside of coaching, McAuley is thankful and enjoys spending time with family, especially family dinners.
Gulf Breeze High School is a great learning environment, the main reason being the supportive staff, one of those being Coach McAuley himself, who challenges his students and creates a rigorous class to prepare them not only for college but their lives beyond that.