New Teachers, New School?

By: Annabelle Williamson and Kaleah Syvirathphan

This year at Redwood, we introduced 14 new staff members ready to teach and aide incoming students. Among the teachers, a new assistant principal, Mr. Marroquin takes on an exciting role that he is very prepared for. The new teachers all feel the ranger pride in the first few months of teaching at Redwood.

With Mr. Espinoza retiring at the end of last year, Mr. Marroquin stepped into the position at the beginning of this year, fully ready to take on the responsibilities. Before coming to Redwood, Mr. Marroquin was an assistant principal at Valley Oak and was an administrator at La Sierra Military Academy. “I feel at ease and I feel at home this is the place i’ve always wanted to be there’s something about this side of town that I adore.” Mr. Marroquin feels that the students at Redwood have a good connection to the teachers. “They have a great core of teachers that have been here a long time and they’re happy and happy teachers means there’s happy kids.” Mr. Marroquin wants to learn the ranger way this year and to go to different events. He is used to dealing with “at-risk” students and moving to a bigger, more diverse school, he is excited to go to things that he couldn’t before. “I’ve always been a teacher first, a coach second and now a leader…”

Mr. Travis Roebuck is a new PE and AVID teacher here at Redwood but is also going to be coaching our track team. He previously worked at Ridgeview Middle School in Visalia, teaching both PE and track as the Athletic Director. “I’m very excited, I’ve been teaching for 15 years now and this is probably the most exciting and nerve wracking year that I’ve gone into. I was definitely ready to teach with the more mature students. I want to get involved with Redwood traditions, the first Rally completely blew my mind as far as expectations. I can’t wait to see what Cowhide is like. One of my main goals would be to keep the successful track record intact and help them improve in any way I can. I really enjoy my two AVID classes and I have a good, fun group of kids in PE.” He concluded that the students are awesome and that it’s nice being around young adults.

“I think you guys have something special not a lot of schools have.”
Mr Ray, Band Director

Mr. Ray is the new band director this school year. He’s leading our band groups into success, keeping our winning streak in place. “I love the students, I love the atmosphere here it’s one of the reasons why I really wanted to come to Redwood. I think you guys have something special not a lot of schools have. It’s just a wonderful atmosphere to teach in. This is my 15th year teaching, my 13th in public education. I taught at Cherry Avenue Middle School and at Mt. Whitney. I’m hoping students have a wonderful experience in band and that we do well in all our performances and competitions. I love music, I love everything about music, the performing, the percussion, everything. They get to create things they can’t in a normal classroom setting.”

Mrs. Valdez, Redwood’s newest Spanish teacher and is super excited to be teaching at Redwood, as this is her first year teaching. Mrs. Valdez was a tutor before becoming a teacher which gives her a background working with students. “I am hoping to gain a lot of knowledge from my students. Just because I’m a teacher doesn’t mean that I know everything.” Valdez continues to talk about the students at Redwood, “I think the students at Redwood are full of personality… there’s such a variation of cultures and backgrounds… it’s an eye opening experience for me” Valdez is really excited to commit to her students and understand more of the Redwood spirit. “I am super excited to be here I love Redwood, the first day I stepped foot on this campus I knew this was a place for me”

Ms. Salazar is a new math teacher on campus who graduated from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. ”It’s only been 4 weeks but so far I like it. This is my first year teaching so I’m still getting used to it. There was a job fair at the end of the year [at her University], so HR was there and they convinced me that Visalia Unified School District was a good place to work. I just want to learn as much as I can about teaching, like classroom management, fun activities to do, I want my students to love math as much as I do. Math is my favorite subject so that’s what I got a degree in. My classes are going good, there are some talkative ones but but they’re still fun. Redwood students are great, even though some can be talkative, they’re respectful and they want to get their work done.”

I love Redwood students, they call me mom.
Mrs Duerre

Redwood’s new American Sign Language teacher is Mrs. Duerre. This is her first year as a teacher of her own class, she was previously a long term substitute teacher. “I really enjoy Redwood, I’m teaching at both schools, Mt. Whitney and Redwood. This year of teaching is increasing my teaching skills because my credential was with Elementary school students but I found that first graders and high schoolers have a lot of similarities. I want to increase my students’ signing skills as well as my own. ASL chose me, I was a stay at home mom but my kids needed a teacher, my son texted me telling me that I need to sub so I became a teacher. My degree is in Deaf Studies so I got that whole background, my daughter started doing theatrical studies, so I went back to COS to refresh my skills for fun. It all played out perfectly. I love Redwood students, they call me mom.”

Mr. Adams is a new History teacher on campus. When asked about his first year at Redwood so far he said that he really loved it. “I love the staff, students are amazing, I’m enjoying what I’m teaching, and it’s just a super cool environment to be working in. I have a roundabout path, I taught for 12 years at Exeter high school but then I quit and went to Law school full time at UC Irvine. I did that for three years, got my Juris Doctorate, passed the bar, and practiced law for a year before coming back to teaching. I want to get myself more comfortable with the Redwood routine, and how the staff do things, how the students do things here, getting a feel for activities we can do in class. It’s my first year on campus so I’ve still got a lot to learn. I want to make sure my students get as good an education as they can and that I’m able to work with my coworkers, so that we can be on the same page about how we’re teaching so the students understand to the best of our ability. I teach 3 sections of World History and 2 sections of Law and Justice so I’m in the Law Academy as well. My classes are fantastic, I have about 130-140 students, the student body is just amazing, they’re all really cool young people. You guys all have cool attitudes, everybody here seems like they have positive attitudes, I see them laughing and messing around. The students really love this campus and it shows.”

Mr. Huerta, a College and Career and World History teacher at Redwood this year. Although this is not his first year at Redwood, it is his first year teaching in a Redwood classroom, as he was the freshman football coach last year. “I got to coach last year, so I knew a little bit about the campus but really it was just the football field…this is my 19th year teaching, I was at ridgeview last year.” Mr. Huerta continues to talk about the classes that he is teaching and his love for history. “I enjoy history and I love history… I like it a lot. The kids are pretty respectful and for the most part, they want to learn.” Mr. Huerta wants to try and help every students that is in his classroom and feels as though he is not here to fail them.

Mr. Sandoval, Redwood’s new Spanish 2 teacher is enjoying his first year teaching at Redwood, although he has taught for 4 years before this. “… I think the best part of being here is the students i’m getting to work with… the best experience i’m having is just working with the kids here.” Mr. Sandoval talks about how important technology is to him in the classroom and how he wants to better the students learning ability using technology. “I want to continue to push innovation. I love using technology in the classroom… so i want to keep pushing the envelope and bring more innovation into the classroom.” Mr. Sandoval also wants to “Raise the challenge of the Spanish classes… to produce the language not just identify it.” Although he is a Spanish teacher now, his dream teaching career is teaching high school physics. “My classes are going great and honestly I couldn’t be happier… I choose to teach Spanish because I majored in Spanish literature and i also majored in biochemistry so eventually my dream is to teach physics but right now i’m very to teach Spanish…” All around, Mr. Sandoval is very excited to be teaching here at Redwood and more excited to talk and learn with his students.

There are also three new Special Education teachers on campus named: Mr. Andrews, Mrs. Latimer, and Mr. Pendergast, as well as a new English teacher and Physics teacher whose names are: Mrs. Williams, and Mrs. Frame. We welcome these new faces to our Redwood family and community. Let’s make Redwood a place they’ll never forget!