Mr. Bailey Hulsey joined Westwood this year as an Engineering and Computer Science teacher. Previously, Mr. Hulsey taught at Lake Travis High School for two years. This year will be his third year of teaching. Mr. Hulsey’s wife, Ms. Courtney Hulsey, is also a teacher at Westwood in the English department. 

Mr. Hulsey majored in biomedical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). He has several varied interests, and plans on eventually returning to school to continue his education.

“College was awesome,” Mr. Hulsey said. “My wife and I think, ‘Man, I wish we could go back,’ and I believe I will go back and do a master’s. Or maybe several. Or maybe a bunch. Or maybe go back to school my whole life.”

One of Mr. Hulsey’s greatest interests is learning. He enjoys being in an educational environment, which is what drew him to teaching as well. 

“Being at school where you’re constantly growing yourself and constantly making things that you can be proud of – going through a textbook and getting all this information – I love doing that,” Mr. Hulsey said. “I keep learning just for fun in my free time. Being around a bunch of people who are also learning the same things as you, and [being able to] sit down and talk about the stuff you’re learning, and see how it applies to real life – awesome experience, all around.” 

Mr. Hulsey made the most of his four years at UT Austin and tried to learn as much as possible. During the course of his bachelor’s degree, he did consider switching out to different fields, but decided to stick to Biomedical Engineering for all four years.

“I have a lot of passions, so I would’ve loved to study several things at once,” Mr. Hulsey said. “I did take a lot of bonus classes that I didn’t need to. I took two semesters of Chinese, and it was great. I also studied abroad a couple of times. That was awesome.”

After college, Mr. Hulsey planned on becoming an engineer. For a while, he struggled to find a suitable job, and decided to try tutoring since it was something he had always loved. For about a year, he tried out several different tutoring jobs, and realized that he really enjoyed helping people learn. 

“I was a teacher at a daycare for fifth and sixth graders, and that was wild,” Mr. Hulsey said. “I love kids, I always have. I also love information and learning. I’m a huge nerd. Now, I’m able to pull all the information I know together and do some really cool things for a lot of people, and so I love it. I love being a teacher.” 

So far, Mr. Hulsey has been really impressed by the effort that Westwood students put into their education. He notes that Westwood students seem to be highly motivated and take on a large workload. 

“You guys [Westwood students] are the most dedicated bunch of people I’ve ever met,” Mr. Hulsey said. “My goal is to help you build off of that dedication in the right direction. In other schools, I have to get kids motivated, and get people excited to do their work. As for you guys, you work so hard – the problem is driving yourselves into the ground and burning the candle at both ends.”

Mr. Hulsey has been encouraging students to explore their options apart from just four-year colleges, such as trade schools, and find out what kind of education and what style of learning really fits them best. 

“You guys work incredibly hard, and I think you don’t have to work that hard. You don’t have to be so stressed all the time,” Mr. Hulsey said. 

Similar to most other teachers, Mr. Hulsey finds adapting to a virtual setting to be a challenge. However, he also embraces the new changes in learning. 

“It’s been difficult, it’s been a lot of work, and it’s been sad that I can’t see my students and get to know them as people as well as I could in person,” Mr. Hulsey said. “But I’ve been pushing for more of a self-paced instructional model for a while. I think that especially in [technology], where you can watch a video and do work at your own pace, self-paced is super beneficial. You can master stuff as you go on your own. This pandemic is sort of a fire that can fuel innovation. So hopefully, school will be more individualized.”

In his free time, Mr. Hulsey likes to watch educational videos, coding tutorials, and play role-playing video games. He also enjoys spending time with his two-year-old son. 

“I enjoy playing with Hudson, my two-year-old, as much as I can. He’s a goofball, and we love doing goofy things,” Mr. Hulsey said. “The other day, I was walking from one spot to another in my house, just doing something silly – going backwards and saying ‘beep, beep, beep,’ – and then he copied me, and that was super cute.”