A Familiar Face in a New Position

OXFORD, OH — As a Talawanda student walking down the 400 wing you might pass a familiar face. This is the new face of the history department, who is a familiar face to Talawanda. Kyle Mcghehey has gone from being a well-known student here at Talawanda to a student teacher working with Ted Caudill to being able to teach in his very own classroom.

Mcghehey said: “I grew up in Darrtown, I had a lot of fun, a lot of people say Darrtown isn’t fun. You just have to find things to do and you make friends and it helped that my family had a farm, so I had a lot of place to roum.” He grew up in the Talawanda Schools and he had some big mentors in his life along the way. Mcghehey said “My step father would be the biggest mentor in my life, he pushed me to do better and not be average and maybe building my confidence to do more. My Grandfather is also a big mentor in my life.”  

When asked about how things have changed at Talawanda since he was a student Mcghehey said that the students are still the same, but things are different because of technology.  Now Mcghehey’s colleagues are some of his former teachers. Mr. Caudill was his football coach. Mr. Schmid was his homeroom teacher. Mcghehey also had Mr. Meece, Mr. Tincher, and Mrs. Mira while he was a THS student.

Mcghehey said that Talawanda being in the middle of a small college town gives the students more of a sense of what college is going to be like before they even graduate high school.

After graduating Talawanda High Mcghehey made the decision to serve in the US Navy: “It was always in the back of my mind to go into the Navy, something was always telling me to do it and that if I didn’t I would regret it.” He trained at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Great Lakes, Illinois. From there he was stationed at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida, and then he was stationed at Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville then to Naval Air Station Jacksonville just across town. Some of the people that he was stationed with said that it would be fun for Mcghehey to teach history.  After leaving the Navy to start his own family here in Ohio he student taught here at Talawanda High School.

“Mr.Mcghehey was very interesting to listen to, he made me want to learn about history and he really made learning fun,” sophomore Nathan Hall said.

Mcghehey said: “I knew I was going to be a teacher but I just didn’t know when. It just depended on how long I was going to stay in the Navy, but my wife and I ended up having kids early on when I was in the Navy. To me I didn’t want them to grow up in a military lifestyle where they moved all the time so we moved and I became a teacher a little earlier but it was always in the plans.” Mcghehey also mentioned that he would like to stay here as long as he can not only because it’s a great school district but because of his family ties to the school and community.

The students at Talawanda hope that Mr.Mcghehey stays here for as long as possible because wherever Mr.Mcghehey is, there’s bound to be a laugh or two.