New ELA teacher William Griffin became interested in teaching English because he likes stories – both telling them and learning from them.

“I have been a big reader and writer, just someone who likes stories – telling stories, reading stories, watching movies, watching TV – since I was young,” said Griffin, who teaches ELA1 and Honors ELA1. 

Reading The Great Gatsby in high school, one of his favorite books, specifically, inspired him to teach English. 

“For the first time, I really consciously broke down what this author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, did to make this such, like an immersive and compelling story,” he said.  “That was the first time that really happened to me, and it broke me, but in a good way. It reconfigured how I thought about English.”

He also enjoys the immersiveness and emotional aspects of storytelling and stories on screen in films.

“Following these characters, a director gets you to care about someone who isn’t real,” Griffin said.

He also enjoys telling stories on stage. He was involved in the theater in high school and college.

“I needed some kind of change, a different set of stuff to be into,” he said. 

He decided to try out for the improv team in high school and didn’t make it, but he did make a play called “Leading Ladies”.

“The first time I auditioned I didn’t get the role, but the second time I auditioned I got the lead villain role,” he said.  

Griffin isn’t new to teaching entirely. He taught for one year in Missouri at Francis Howell High School in St. Charles outside St. Louis, near where he grew up in Ballwin. He also taught at Seckman Senior High in 2023.