Tyler McKinzie teaches sixth grade at Sonoma Ranch Elementary. “Sonoma Ranch is a wonderful school and there is a reason I have been there 16 years,” he says. “The kids, staff, and families make it the best place in the world to be every day.”

McKinzie says he loves teaching sixth grade because he loves teaching all the subjects, which he could not do if he moved to jr. high. He enjoys teaching math, science, social studies, reading and helping students learn to express themselves through writing. 

Originally from Altamont, Kansas, McKinzie came to Arizona to attend ASU with plans to become a sports agent. During an internship, he says he soon realized his chosen career was not quite the Hollywood version he had seen in “Jerry Maguire.”

The family he knew when he moved here, the Willems, were both teachers and helped him get a job as a long-term sub. McKinzie had coached kids before, and he soon found that being in the classroom and working with kids was what he truly wanted to do.

When his mom became an empty nester, she went back to school and followed in her son’s footsteps. His mom became a teacher three years after he did, notes McKinzie. One of his sisters also became a teacher and his wife, Cori, teaches fourth grade in Mesa. 

“I did not realize we were going to be a teaching family,” says McKinzie, but notes that his wife is able to “filter off-the-wall ideas and (put) up with me when teaching takes long hours. She totally gets it.” 

While he admits to keeping a strict routine, he also likes to have fun and joke around with his students, whether that means heading outside for a math or reading lesson or shooting tennis balls out of an air cannon for science.

“I’m really just a big kid at heart,” says McKinzie.

While sports were a passion when he was growing up, McKinzie says he always was more interested in the business side of things—writing letters to general managers to advise on trades for example. Nowadays, he follows his daughters, ages 10 and 6, in their sports pursuits.

McKinzie advises students that “the things that are helpful are not always easy...sometimes they have to go through hard things to learn.” He says they may not understand that message now, but that former students who visit him have discovered the truth in those words.