Q: How does it feel to be the favorite teacher in your department?
A: It feels very cool to have been voted for this awesome award. I work with great teachers who have helped me become the teacher I am today as well as all the amazing students I've had throughout the years. I just strive to make history as relevant and interesting as possible and I hope it is having a positive impact on my students.
Q: What brought you to Pinacate?
A: After I finished my student-teaching at a high school in another district, I began job hunting. Pinacate and the school I had done my training at both had history positions open so I interviewed for both of them. When I interviewed at Pinacate and visited the school, the vibe just felt right. The principal and the other person who interviewed me made me feel so welcome and it was a feeling I didn't feel at the other schools I interviewed at, so I chose Pinacate.
Q: How long have you been teaching?
A: This is my 9th year teaching. All 9 years have been at Pinacate
Q: How did your teaching journey start?
A: Both of my parents were teachers so it was a profession I was familiar with. Originally I wanted to go into writing and music. I had even applied to specific community colleges to pursue those careers but one day I woke up and decided I didn't want to go that route. I loved history and felt I could make an impact and show others how important and not boring history actually is.
Q: What college did you go to?
A: I first went to Chaffey College. From there I went to Cal State Fullerton. I got my Masters degree at Brandman University.
Q: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
A: I'm 32 and have been married to my wife for 3 years. We have 4 dogs: a havanese/shih-tzu mix and 3 dachshunds. Their names are Benjamin, Franklin, Pinto, and Vienna. I am a big NASCAR fan, a Star Wars fan, and a major Swiftie (Taylor Swift fan).
Q: What's your best memory of working at Pinacate?
A: That's a tough one. Every year I make so many great memories with each group of students. It's always memorable seeing students succeed and push to be better and better. It's also memorable seeing past students achieve so much in high school and graduate. Probably the best memory though was a few years ago, I had a student who worked hard all year and his goal was to promote and make his mom proud. When he got the letter in class that he was promoting he instantly called his mom and started crying saying "I'm promoting!" It was so awesome seeing that.
Q: What would your students be shocked to find out about you?
A: I really wanted to become an author when I was younger, and I have written several stories that I tried getting published when I was in my early 20s. My goal is to go back, rewrite those stories, and again start trying to find a literary agent to represent my work for publication.
Q: What made you teach the subject that you currently teach?
A: I've always loved history. I found it so fascinating even as a little kid, especially military history. But I always recognized that history could be taught so much better in a way that wasn't so boring. Then as I got to college and started taking history courses, I learned so many things that I was never taught in any of the other grades as well as the truth about so many things and it kind of made me upset because it just blew my mind that history was being mistold or left out. And that became my main drive for teaching history: I wanted to unravel the truth with students.
Q: What are the hardest and easiest parts of being a teacher?
A: The easiest part for me is getting to teach the content that I love. The hardest part is sometimes you come across difficult situations in the classroom and they can cause a breakdown in the safety of the room or create large amounts of stress.