Andrew Cotten teaches Eighth-Grade Advanced English and Creative Writing. He also facilitates the MBJH TED-Ed Club and is the co-organizer for TEDxYouth@MBJH.

He will do his absolute best to help his students reach their highest potential. His goal is for each and every student to leave his class a stronger reader and writer, proud of their growth, aware of the areas in which they need more help, and excited to continue their studies the following school year.

Students, brace yourself and get excited. There are many books to read, many papers to write, many grammar rules to practice, many topics to discuss, and many stories to share. 

Mr. Cotten's Class Schedule:

Off Periods: 1st and 4th

2nd period: Advanced English 8

3rd period: Creative Writing

5th period: Advanced English 8

6th period: Creative Writing

7th period: Advanced English 8

“I will not let school get in the way of my education”

- Mark Twain

“The ability to create new knowledge to solve new problems is the single most important skill that all students must master today.”

- Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World, Tony Wagner

“The most important thing is allowing students to ask questions and then give them the space to find the answers.” 

- Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World, Tony Wagner

“Of course, our students will continue to need content knowledge, but that's the easy part now. As we’ve seen, content knowledge has become a free commodity--like air or water--growing exponentially, changing constantly, and available on every Internet-connect device. The harder part is helping students develop the skill and the will to ask new questions, solve new problems, and create new knowledge.”

- Most Likely to Succeed, Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith

“Three bricklayers are asked: ‘What are you doing?’ The first says, ‘I am laying bricks.’ The second says, ‘I am building a church.’ And the third says, ‘I am building the house of God.’ The first bricklayer has a job. The second has a career. The third has a calling.”

- Grit, Angela Duckworth

“A child is born knowing nothing, and all they want to do is learn. Every experience in the universe is new to them and they’re soaking it in; they’re a learning machine. Yet, we grind that out of them in our educational system, and they are taught not to learn; they are taught to memorize; they are taught to be very good at figuring out what it is a teacher wants them to do and then deliver it in the exact way the teacher wanted…”

- Pure Genius, Don Wettrick