Sam Barlow High School offers many great electives, including a popular one that many students enjoy, Graphic Design. Graphic Design is a class where students can learn the principles of visual communication and design. You can learn about color theory, typography, layout, and how to use design software. This class consists of hands-on projects where you can let your imagination grow and design logos, posters, and any other visual materials.
Andrew Toth has been teaching Graphic Design for four years now, and he has coached women’s soccer for 15 years. Toth also taught at Reynolds for 24 years before coming to Barlow. Toth loves teaching, but his favorite part is making a difference in students’ lives and seeing them grow.
Toth was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1969. His mother is Swedish. His father is Canadian, and he escaped from Hungary. He enjoys listening to music, especially heavy metal. He enjoys coaching and watching soccer, and he has been coaching for 20 years. He originally started the Lynch soccer club, which became Centennial. Toth absolutely loves all food except mushrooms; he hates them and says they are disgusting. He enjoys reading as well as watching movies and shows. His favorites are European murder mysteries and sci-fi. He has two kids who both graduated from Barlow.
Unfortunately, due to budget cuts, Mr. Toth is transitioning to teaching Physical Education next school year. This sadly means all the graphic design classes will no longer be available to students. Toth also attended college at Lesley University, and he originally majored in physical education. He has always wanted to teach it again and would love to end up in the educational field he started in because that was his original major when he graduated. Toth says that he would maybe in the future go back to teaching Graphic Design, but he will do whatever the school needs him to.
Toth is excited to teach PE next school year, but he will also miss teaching Graphic Design. He says that he will miss seeing students realize that graphic design is an important part of society and finding out they have the creative genius to add to that in society. He will also miss seeing students realize that graphic design is really a fun and cool thing, and find out that they really enjoy doing it. His favorite part about teaching Graphic Design is the kids, he loves getting to know them and seeing them grow. He also loves seeing some of them move into real-life fields and using what they learned here at Barlow.
Since Toth is becoming a PE teacher next year, this means Mr. Summerfield will retire and move on. He is essentially replacing him.
However Toth is also excited to teach PE and help students realize that movement is an important part of daily life, and that it can be enjoyable. Toth plans on teaching PE for the next five years at least, he is gonna teach whatever grade level the school needs, maybe both juniors and freshman. He will be teaching PE as well as the recreational soccer class that many currently enjoy.
As Toth is excited to start a new chapter of his teaching career, he worries that since they are removing all the graphic design classes, he hopes there will be enough electives for kids to take and get into
