About Mr. Johns
I am proud to be a product of the Boise School District: Valley View, Fairmont, and Capital.

When I was young I was very athletic and played on the first soccer team in the valley when I was in the 4th or 5th grade. This led to playing for the first "select" soccer team (Coca Cola Boise United) when I was in 7th grade. I played for and travelled with that team for four years. In the 8th grade I ran my fastest mile - 5 minutes and 18 seconds - and tried out and made the first state soccer team, the Idaho Strikers. We were the 16 top players in the state but didn't fare well when playing teams from other states, like California, where soccer had been played for much longer. But that was an honor and good time. At Capital High School I was captain of the varsity soccer team for four years and experienced soccer become an official high school sport in 1983 or 84. We won state twice during that time. 

​​I ran track my first two years of high school, competing in the 100m, 200m, 400m, and various relays. Sadly I quit track to focus on other things my last two years in high school and will always wonder what I could have accomplished had I tried harder and kept at it. My father was a split second off the world record in the "100 yard dash" when he was at Boise High and he thought I was even faster. I like to pass that lesson onto my students: don't quit (or not start) something so that you'll always wonder what might have been.

After graduating from Capital in 1985 I attended Boise State University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in education, finishing with a Physical Education major and minors in English and Health.

In 1991 I took the first and only job I interviewed for - a K-12 teaching position in New Meadows, Idaho. For two years I coached four volleyball teams, the track team, the one-person cross country team, and taught English, Health, and P.E. classes. It was overwhelming and I was the only single person in town and the only person my age. After two years I moved back to Boise where I took a year off from teaching, met and married my wife, and then returned to teaching at Meridian Middle School the following year.

In 1996 I was asked to move to a new school being built in Eagle (Eagle Middle School).
​In 1998 I picked up an endorsement in Driver Education​​​​ and started teaching Technology classes during the school day and driver education classes after school.
In 2000 I was ​named Teacher of the Year at Eagle Middle School.
In 2001 I took a job in Boise at Les Bois Junior High and loved it!
In 2003 I was named Outstanding ​Professional-Technical Educator of the Year for the Boise School District.
Also in 2003 I finished a master's degree in Educational Technology.
Also in 2003 I was asked to write and teach online courses at a new school in Idaho called the Idaho Digital Learning Academy.
In 2005 I wrote the country's first online driver education course for students which gained some national attention and introduced me to national leaders in traffic safety.
In 2007 the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Luna, offered me the position of Idaho Director of Driver Education at the State Department of Education. I turned in down initially, not wanting to leave teaching, but after agreeing to a little more money and taking a year's leave of absence from Boise, decided to do it for one year. That one year turned into five. ​While in this leadership role I trained over 500 public and private driver education instructors, managed a budget of over two million dollars, re-wrote the Idaho Supervised Driving Guide, learned how to make a bill become law, and wrote new state curriculum twice. The second edition of the curriculum was the first to not need expensive textbooks that became outdated the year after they were published. My material was Idaho-specific and included current statistics and trends. It also was all on one DVD and included everything a teacher needed to teach the course: videos, quizzes, worksheets, and presentations. I am proud of that curriculum and the changes to statutes and regulations that were made during my tenure. Just a few examples include not allowing teachers with D.U.I.s or crimes against children to teach public driver education in Idaho, limiting online coursework to only that which meets or exceeds the INACOL standards for online education, and allowing only certified teachers to teach public driver education courses.  

In 2009 I created the country's first true online driver education teacher licensing course and was hired by Northwest Nazarene University to teach it. This course was the first of its kind, allowing teachers from any rural or urban area in Idaho to earn 4 university credits and an instructor's license. I believe this course alone has saved many small programs that could not find a teacher to travel to Boise for six weekends in a row to take the traditional course.

Also in 2009 I was asked to be part of a small team that wrote new national standards for
driver education and training administration. Meetings took place in D.C. and Arizona and were hosted by N.H.T.S.A., the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration. My input was mainly to guide the discussions about online driver education.  

Between 2009 and 2012 I served as Idaho Traffic Safety Commissioner and chairman of the Idaho Youthful Drivers Committee.

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In 2010 I completed a second master's degree, this one from the University of Idaho, in educational administration. ​​
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In 2012 I was ready to return to teaching and took a position teaching technology classes at Hillside Junior High school in Boise.

​In 2013 an opening came up at West Junior High and I began teaching technology classes there and couldn't have been more thrilled. The Principal, Tim Standlee, was a student with me all the way through school in Boise and I was asked to run the driver education program there and teach the classes after school. It was a perfect fit! 

In my spare time I work on a room-sized model train layout, fly RC airplanes, spend time kayaking, read good mysteries, play a dulcimer and native American double flute, paint in watercolor and acrylic, and enjoy hitting the open road on a motorcycle or behind the wheel of a 2005 Mustang.   ​​

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Speaking on the steps of the Idaho Capitol
​during a motorcycle safety rally.
Sledding Simplot hill and
​catching some air!