Teacher Interview

Teacher Interview

By: Kristine Li, Tracy Huang, Pradipti Lama

We decided to interview most teachers and staff members at Marina, there were two questions that they could’ve answered: “What is the weirdest thing you’ve seen while traveling?” and “What inspired you to become a school staff?” From this interview, we were able to learn more about the staff members’ lives! They all said interesting things that really inspired us, hope you’ll feel the same.

Mr. Helmenstine boldly stated, “I like talking to people and being active. You get to meet new people with different perspectives on life.”

Mrs. Morano told us, “I really liked my 6th grade science teacher, Ms. Rubin, and I wanted to be her which says a lot because I hated science.”

Mr. Cirillo happily said, “I liked to teach. I actually used to be a science teacher in New York in high school, I enjoyed it a lot. I enjoyed the interaction with students. It makes me feel accomplished. It's make me feel they are making progress.”

“I became a teacher because I used to work in advertising, and I got tired of it because it wasn't making a difference in the world. And I wanted to try to make a difference. If you're gonna complain you might as well be part of the solution, not problem. The people who I’ve worked with, their writing was not good, instead of complaining about people for bad writing, teach them.” said Ms. Berger.

Mrs. Araujo who is concerned stated, “I grew up near Southern California. Middle School was so hard and I thought, no one should go through this. I couldn't pass algebra, so my counselor helped me pass algebra. I thought if this man was willing to help me, why can't I do the same? I see a drastic change with the new generation because everyone is on their phones. The new generation doesn’t know what to do when given a social situation, besides that, I love being a counselor!”

Papagani told us in a very serious voice, “I was in Tasmania, Australia and saw a whole pig head in the trash can.”

Ms. Fox told us, “I wanted to be an interior designer and my mother said, “you should become a teacher.” It’s something you can always fall back on. And she’s right. I taught for 9 years and I didn’t for 20 something years, and I’m doing it again.”

Ms. Swanger said, “I became a school social worker because, as a teenage, it was hard. I felt like adults didn't take the issues from teenagers seriously, but I meet a few people that helped me and I thought, why can't I do the same?”

Mr. Yee told us, “I was in a safari in South Africa at Kruger national park. And I was watching lions crushing bones of water buffaloes and you could smell the flesh.”

We think it’s exciting to know the personal lives of staff members at Marina and what they’ve seen outside in the world. We have a question that you may want to answer: “What was the weirdest thing you’ve seen while at Marina?” and we hope to see some interesting answers that you might want to share with us! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdX5TkoNJuI1m6rGhx9Kx_wpJx2umaEUTrG94AEeGphMmYlNg/viewform

Here are some photos of the teachers we’ve interviewed: