From training West Point cadets to serving as the in-house substitute teacher, Steve O’Dell has found a career sweet spot at Fossil Ridge High School.

“The communities I see in just the way the kids support each other, and they turn to each other for issues with peers, [and] issues with boyfriends and girlfriends,” O’Dell said. “Those kids all have each other’s back, they’re all looking out for each other.”

O’Dell spent more than 24 years training Army recruits as a combat engineer at West Point. 

“I was a trainer and a teacher, but it was a slightly older group, and it was interesting stuff, but it wasn’t really applicable to civilian life. And it was very, very specific,” O’Dell said, “The other thing was I just didn’t get to follow up with people because they tend to leave every two years.”

O’Dell also did environmental work and emergency planning before transitioning careers through the Troops to Teachers program to become a math teacher in Denver.

“We weren’t super happy in Denver,” O’Dell said, “We didn’t want both parents working full-time, and substitute was kind of the best of both worlds.”

In 2020, he became a substitute teacher in Poudre School District. O’Dell has a few tricks that make him enjoy substituting more than being a traditional teacher.

“I get to play the dumb new guy and like walk around and go, ‘Hey, I’ve never seen this before, explain it to me.’ So I get to use that with the students a lot. Force them to articulate what they’re doing and think about it,” O’Dell said.

A big difference with the new job is the different responsibilities. 

“I don’t have to grade papers. I don’t have to follow up on a lot of things. I get to just leave notes for the teacher and say, ‘This is what I saw. You can do what you will with it,’” he said.

That is not the only aspect of subbing that O’Dell appreciates. 

“The thing I love about subbing is that I do get to follow kids for a couple of years. I get to see how they develop and how they grow. And it just surprises me every day to see the leadership roles, especially in this building, as you progress from freshman to senior,” O’Dell said.

Many students have good things to say about O’Dell.

“He’s been like a consistent sub, so I can see him. He helped me understand math better. And the neuro balls, he does brainbreaks, which helped me understand that high school can be more fun,” said freshman Akshat Gudidevuni.