Today we’d like to introduce you to Caleb Sommer
Hi Caleb, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’m primarily a middle school social studies teacher in Osceola County. I’ve been looking for a new hobby that checked several boxes of current hobbies. I enjoy filmmaking, creating digital art, and scriptwriting. I had created a Youtube channel back in 2010 for school projects and random fun projects that my friends and I would put together. It had remained dormant until about 11 months ago when I decided to make a review of a LEGO set purchased at Disney Springs. I made a script, shot it, and posted it. As a video, it didn’t perform well but I knew I enjoyed making the video and wanted to keep learning and improving so that I could get to a place where I was proud of the work I was doing. Even now, after a year of improving I still don’t feel confident but I know I’m improving my hobby. The channel received a good amount of attention when my apartment’s storage unit was broken into and I made a video about it. I lost about $11k worth of LEGO in the robbery and so I reacted to it online. The video is sitting at about 84,000 views and grew the channel tremendously. People were incredibly supportive and reached out to see how they could help. I have continued to make content related to LEGO and teaching since then with slowly growing results. As of right now it’s just a hobby but it’s one that I enjoy doing with the free time that I do have. I hope to continue growing the channel over time and eventually make it a career. The channel is called BravoBricks, which is just a fun play on words. I make content about LEGO, teaching, and the Orlando area in general. I particularly like to visit The Orlando Brick Co. I often film there and make poor financial decisions along the way.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The online space is never a smooth road. There has been a lot of ups and downs but each video I make is a learning experience. A video that takes 12 hours to write, shoot, and edit could get 80 views, but one that takes an hour gets 4,000. It’s just a matter of finding out what works now and the way I present it. The thumbnail has proven to be one of the most important elements of a video. Sometimes changing a thumbnail on a video can alter the viewership dramatically. Finding time to make videos after working at a school all day can also be a challenge. Some weeks are busy and others not so much.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I originally moved down to Florida from Ohio so that I could teach down here. (And visit the theme parks, of course!) I’ve taught at two schools in Orlando but have stayed at my current school for three years so far. I teach world history to 6th graders but have taught language arts as well. The students probably know me as the teacher that wears Hawaiian shirts and has filled the classroom with LEGO. I’m most proud of the progress I’ve made both as a person and as a professional through these four years of teaching. I’ve found what works for me and what doesn’t. I won’t lie, teaching in Florida right now isn’t easy and there’s a lot of skirting around content to avoid losing a license or being fired. What sets me apart from others is that I’m not afraid to make a complete fool of myself. It’s my job to get the kids to learn content that they don’t necessarily want to know about. Finding creative solutions to that problem is where I thrive, and if that means running around the classroom talking like a cave-man, then so be it.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
Teaching as a whole will need to change over the next 5-10 years. If the profession doesn’t change, the future leaders that come through the school will remain unprepared. Whether that means a four day school week or online hybrid courses or maybe even something more drastic than that, I’m not sure. Students are behind the mark where they need to be and we blame COVID for the delay. At some point in time COVID can’t be the excuse and it means that teaching will need to grow and change. Teachers are also in heavy demand in most places across Florida. The way that teachers are treated both by their own school and by the public servants that serve the state will need to improve or there will be a teaching crisis that will be even more difficult to recover from.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: bravo_bricks_yt
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BravoBricks/videos
Image Credits
Caleb Sommer
