A Northwest Indiana Life in the Spotlight: Mark Langlois

A Northwest Indiana Life in the Spotlight: Mark Langlois

For more than 20 years, Mark Langlois has been a Language Arts teacher at Kahler Middle School (KMS). In those 20 years the relationships and legacy he’s led has been more than ideal. Currently Langlois teaches sixth grade Language Arts at KMS and prior to teaching sixth, he taught Language Arts for seventh and eighth graders at KMS. Within his 20 years of teaching at KMS, Langlois has realized that to be a good educator one should be open to change and have some adaptability. 

Ever since he started teaching Language Arts, Langlois has noticed a difference in the curriculum. As of today Language Arts focuses more on academic writing, whereas in the past it dealt more with grammar. But no matter what he has to teach, Langlois finds a passion in connecting real life situations to what he’s educating individuals on. 

Langlois decided that teaching middle school was for him while previously teaching both high school and middle school. Not only does Langlois enjoy teaching middle schoolers in the classroom, but what also made him teach middle school was being able to be a middle school cross country and track and field coach. 

“I like coaching at the middle school level. I’ve had so many good experiences and with teaching at that level you can really give those kids a lot of education in a short amount of time. I relate to middle school kids, we really get along together. I always enjoy the energy they have,” Langlois said. 

Since 1985, Langlois has been a coach for cross country and track and field. Throughout middle school and high school, Langlois ran for both. By the time Langlois graduated from high school he knew he wanted some career with education and found it while still keeping his passion of running. Langlois would like to mention that another reason he became a coach was due to his very influential cross and track coach in high school, John Jarosinski.

Aside from being a lifelong runner and reader, Langlois is also a lifelong player and enjoyer of chess. This chess passion came to life for Langlois a handful of years ago when he started a chess club. This chess club started after a group of unruly individuals got kicked out of their advisory and was put into Langlois’ class (opt-out) during that advisory period. 

After a few months of getting those individuals to play chess, others started coming to Langlois’ class and eventually the school decided to make it an after school club. The chess club became so tight knit and educated in chess that they went to state for the Indiana Scholastic Chess Association and finished in 10th place. As of today, the chess club has over 60 students, and Langlois could not be more thrilled. 

“I’ve always enjoyed chess, I’ve been playing since elementary school. It’s a great activity for encouraging kids to have some grit and a fighting spirit. Chess club is a great way for kids to get together and to be themselves. I honestly find so many similarities between chess and coaching, it’s great because the kids really want to be there. We connect so much more when they're in a club, it’s great,” said Langlois. 

Besides being a coach and an educator, Langlois loves to spends his time biking, playing for cover bands, listening to music, playing the bass and guitar, running marathons, and doing his weekly three or four mile run with his friends.