When Ed Holub first heard he had won Mercer County Teacher of the Year, he thought it was a joke.
When Pond Road Middle School history teacher applied, he wasn’t sure if what he did—staying in at lunch and after school to help struggling students, creating an environment where students are excited to learn—would stand out, as he said it’s simply what teachers do.
But as he was driving home from the gym one day, he got the call that he received the honor.
“I actually had to pull the car over, and I was really stunned,” Holub said.
Holub may have been stunned upon finding out he won the award, but Pond Road Middle School Principal Paul Gizzo wasn’t surprised at all.
“I’ve known Ed for almost 11 years now, and I’ve always been inspired with his encyclopedic knowledge of history,” Gizzo said. “But I’m also more inspired with how much he’s learned as a teacher.”
Holub has been a teacher for 18 years, spending his first two years teaching in the West Windsor-Plainsboro school district before coming to Robbinsville. Despite spending almost two decades as a middle school teacher, he initially resisted having a career in the classroom.
“I had a feeling I was going to end up as a teacher,” he said. “I think I resisted because it’s kind of a family business.”
His aunt, sister and mother are all teachers. His mother, Kathy, taught Kindergarten at St. Gregory the Great Academy in Hamilton Square until June 2014. His sister, Kathleen, also teaches Kindergarten at St. Greg’s.
But, despite the family history, Holub went into college undeclared. Ultimately, it was his passion for history that lead him to go into education. He graduated from La Salle University in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education/comprehensive social studies.
Throughout Holub’s childhood in Hamilton Square, he loved learning about history. The rich stories and the entire scope of the people, places and wars drew him into the subject.
“You had characters, you had these plots, these big events unfolding,” he said.
Military history was his favorite, partially due to his father being in the National Guard for 30 years, and he is a self-proclaimed Civil War fantic.
“I get made fun of because I’m a history geek. I walk battlefields on days off,” he said. “Especially in my curriculum, I still love to study everything from world history, to World War I and World War II. Being a fan of the subject there’s no limit on where you can go.”
Holub’s passion for history doesn’t go unnoticed by his students, who are quick to catch his enthusiasm for the subject. He said students realize when teachers are speaking about a subject in a knowledgeable yet passionate way, and they will begin to share that same excitement about the material.
“They will pick up on you if you’re not ready, if you understand it’s importance but it’s not your passion,” Holub said.
Holub has always taught eighth grade, which he says is his favorite age group.
“People are afraid of the eighth graders, but to me, as a teacher, that’s when they are really starting to think for themselves,” he said. “They’re starting to question the material and begin forming a lot of their own opinions, and I really like being apart of that process.”
Part of the fun of teaching eighth grade, Holub said, is the ability to challenge them to think beyond the textbooks facts presented and have them think more critically about what they’re learning. His students will often bring up something they heard from their parents or on TV, which Holub uses as “teachable moments” throughout the year to tie in what’s happening today to what happened in the past. One of the most recent examples, was when students came into class with questions about the presidential debates.
“It makes it more real,” Holub said. “Here you have people that are vying for the presidency. They’re talking about what they want to do when they get in power, and a lot of people don’t even know what’s in the constitution. So here we are going through the document itself, we’re talking about whether or not the president can do what they say they want to do.”
Weaving current events into lesson plans is a successful way to challenge students to think beyond the textbook, but Holub said it means he always has to be ready for anything the children throw at him.
“It keeps you on your toes with eighth graders,” he said. “You really can’t take time off. You can’t come in unprepared because someone is going to think about something and you have to be ready for it. If you’re doing a project, how is it going to work? What will the outcome be? You almost have to predict what questions you’re going to be asked.”
The unpredictability of students has caused Holub to alter his teaching style over the years.
“I’m a storyteller,” Holub said. “I’m passionate and excited about what these people did and how to it shaped our world.”
While Holub said he likes to stand in front of the class and tell stories, he’s recently transitioned from a teacher-centered model to more cooperative learning between students.
“I had to give up that control, so the students could go do their own digging into history,” he said.
Gizzo said when he first came to Pond Road, Holub was a “stand and delivery person” but over the years he’s opened up and allowed the students to take control over the material, helping each other ask questions and find answers. Having the ability to switch up the lesson plan at the last minute or alter the style of teaching is the mark of a great teacher.
“No matter how good he was, he continues to get better year by year, and that’s what we’re looking for on our educators,” Gizzo said.
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