The Seahawk Times - Staff and Student Features (7)

Mr. Bonilla and His Journey To The Teacher Of The Year.

By: Brody Doyle

Mr. Bonilla is a Spanish teacher for the high school and has had quite the journey to the top of all the teachers. He was born and raised in Costa Rica, and also got all of his teaching education and experience from there too. He is a very passionate teacher who puts lots of effort into his teaching. It has been his passion forever, and it shows when you are his student. Mr. Bonilla got his teacher's degree in Costa Rica. His fellow college students said that he should go into engineering because he was very smart. In his 3rd year, Mr. Bonilla wanted to chase his dreams and switched his degree to teaching because this is what he has always wanted to do. Mr. Bonilla said, “I have always wanted to be a teacher because my mom was always a great teacher.”

After college, Mr. Bonilla did not go straight into teaching in America. Before coming to America he worked in Costa Rica for 7 years. When he was coming to America Mr. Bonilla said “I was excited but I was also scared.” He was scared when coming to America because English is not his first language and this is a new way of teaching then in Costa Rica. Overall Mr. Bonilla was excited when coming to America to teach. Mr. Bonilla’s first year at this school was very rough. Mr. Bonilla said, “you need to learn how to develop relationships with the students” which his first year teaching at this school was difficult for him. According to Mr. Bonilla every semester gets easier because you learn from the last on how to become a better teacher. In class, Mr. Bonilla shows lots of enthusiasm for teaching in the classroom.

He says,” My inspiration is my mom, she always loved teaching. And I had a very good teacher in high school.” His inspiration had a lot to do with his peers when he was younger. He also said, "I wanna be that type of person, to help students in more than just school.” Last year, Mr. Bonilla won the teacher of the year award. He won this for his amazing capability to teach his students with such passion. He said,” When I won the award I was not expecting it, because there were two other very good teachers in front of me.” The teachers were Mr. Willard and Mr. Clock and they were two very good teachers as well. Although, Mr. Bonilla pulled it out and got one of the biggest accomplishments of his teaching career.

Jack Fieldings Rise and Fall in Swimming

By: Brody Doyle

A student at the Hilton Head Island High School, Jack Fielding used to be one of the best High School swimmers in the states. Although, his rise to the states all happened when he was in Middle School. He reached the states while he was still in 8th grade. He was also ranked 3rd swimmer of his age in the whole United States. To get to the top they need to want to be at the top. All-state swimmer Jack Fielding said, “I wanted to go to states because it was always a dream to be one of the best swimmers in the state.”

He practiced every day after school to get better at swimming, hoping to go to states. Although, once he reached the goal, he quit swimming forever. This really surprised his family and friends. Being one of the best swimmers in the states, it came as a shocker. He said, ”After you do something for such a long time, it starts to get boring.” Sticking with one sport your whole life can get really boring and eventually will want to quit. This happened to Jack with his time swimming. He has only swam his entire life and this eventually got too boring for him. Jack said, “I wanted to try out other sports instead of sticking with swimming all of high school.” Now he is trying other sports instead of swimming. So, Jack played football the season after swimming ended. He enjoyed it much better than his old sport.

He said that "playing a sport that you like is much more fun, than going through every day playing a sport that I do not find interesting or fun.” This says a lot about high school sports, and how the main driver for playing a sport is to have fun and enjoy the time playing a high school sport. After trying out new sports like football, track, and lacrosse Jack now has had fun with sports again. Jack said, “After playing these new sports I don’t think I could ever go back to swimming.” Even though Jack was amazing at swimming he did not have fun and does not think he could ever go back to swimming every day.

Ms. Holland the Beloved Math Teacher

By: Nayelis Chirino Bonilla

Ms. Holland is an algebra teacher who teaches in the 9th-grade academy at the Hilton Head Island High School. Ms. Holland is one of the many adored teachers in the 9th-grade academy due to her different ways of teaching and treating her students as if they were her kids. Ms. Holland teaches math in a different way than other math teachers. Ms. Holland says, “I try to be fair. I don't pick favorites. I treat every student the same and I try to remember they have other things going on in their lives instead of my class.” Ms. Holland teaches math.

She says, “Math has always been my favorite subject. I was always great and good at math and I wanted to do something with young adults like kids that were older than 13. I thought teaching was a good place to go.” How math is taught has changed over time. Ms. Holland states, “So I found that there were new tricks shortcuts that students can take to get the same answers I did. And then calculators are used more, and now there’s more technology which is nice because it makes the hard work easier for students nowadays. Math is hard for a lot of students but sometimes the best lesson to learn are things that are applied to life.

According to Ms. Holland, “ I just try to be nice and respectful to everybody and to treat everybody with respect until somebody disrespect you. I don't think you have the right to disrespect anybody else.” Teachers have a favorite thing to teach. Ms. Holland’s favorite thing to teach is “The easiest math subject to teach is solving equations, which I think is the easiest thing to teach.” All teachers have a passion for teaching and there is always something that makes them want to be a teacher, according to Ms. Holland “ So I went to school here and I graduated here in 1993 and I had a Spanish teacher that inspired me to be a teacher he told me that I would be a good teacher so I went to school but I was about to teach Spanish and math teacher but I was ready to graduate and I just wanted to teach math.” On top of being a teacher, Ms. Holland says, “I worked at a restaurant as a host but I went to college to be a teacher but the restaurant was a side job.” Ms. Holland is the kindest and most loving teacher ever and HHIHS is lucky to have her.