Seth Renquist

Mr. Renquist has 8 years of teaching experience. He has been teaching within DoDEA schools for the past seven years. Currently Mr. Renquist is teaching 5th grade Japanese Partial Immersion (JPI) at Kadena Elementary. He has also taught 3rd-8th grade summer enrichment courses within the Okinawa District.

Prior to coming to DoDEA, Mr. Renquist taught 3rd grade at Holomua Elementary School and summer enrichment classes for 7th-8th grade students in Hawaii. He also taught Kindergarten through 6th grade and adult level English and Culture in all 20 of Japan's Ishigaki City Schools.

Mr. Renquist graduated from the University of Iowa with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Japanese. He received his Master of Education in Teaching from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He also completed an Advanced Japanese Language course at Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan.

Mr. Renquist believes that it is a teacher's job to focus learning towards a certain set of concepts. Teachers must then encourage high quality learning by instilling in their students an "intention to learn, stimulating them, and giving them a safe, social environment within which to learn." He believes that teachers should find ways to relate what is to be learned to their students' understandings, experiences, lives, and interests in order to motivate students and engage them in learning.