This year the school has welcomed many new teachers on campus, among them is Simone Swain, the newest geometry teacher. Wingspan sat down with Swain to find more about her journey on campus and how her past few weeks have been here. 

Wingspan: Where are you from originally?

Swain: “I’m originally from California, small town called Campo.”

Wingspan: What college did you go to? For how long?

Swain: “I went to Wayland Baptist University for four years.”

Wingspan: When did you find your passion in math?

Swain: “I’ve always loved math since I was a little kid, so I always knew I wanted to do something in math. Just because I love the problem solving, I love the challenge.”

Wingspan: Why do you like teaching?

Swain: “I love interacting with students. I love just like the process of teaching, and, watching people learn because I love learning, kind of why I fell in love with teaching and I love showing students you can do it.” 

Wingspan: How long have you been teaching for?

Swain: “I student taught for half the semester and this is actually my first school year of teaching”

Wingspan: What is the most difficult thing about teaching?

Swain: “Balancing everything because every student has different needs, so balancing like one student may need something different from this student, showing them in multiple ways. Just the whole planning process and then coming into class. Being flexible and adjusting.”

Wingspan: What made you want to teach on campus?

Swain: “The team here, when I interviewed here, I fell in love with the math department, the people, and the teachers that I met. So it made it an easy choice.”

Wingspan: How has your first few weeks been here?

Swain: “They’ve been hard, just getting used to teaching, it’s difficult because it’s a lot of work but a lot of fun and I enjoyed  getting to know the students and the people I work with. It’s been great and I love it. It’s been a smooth transition because everybody here is fantastic.”

Wingspan: What goals do you personally want your students to achieve in your class? 

Swain: “I think my main goal for my students is, yeah I want them to do well and get good grades but mostly to appreciate math, I want them to leave without hating it.”

Wingspan: What do you do in your free time?

Swain: “I play a lot of beach volleyball. So, I go to sand courts all the time. I like doing active things working out, playing sports, and hanging out with people. All the fun stuff, game nights, a lot of board game nights.”

From Oklahoma, to UTEP, to Texas A&M, biology teacher and assistant football coach Justin Lopez is adjusting to not only life in Frisco, but what it’s like to be a Redhawk. 

Wingspan: How have the first few weeks at school been?

Lopez: “It’s been a little bit tough because I still need to get used to your ways over here, I’m still getting used to it, it’s starting to slow down a little bit, but I like it.” 

Wingspan: What made you want to come and teach here?

Lopez: “Frisco as a whole was my aiming point, and I was just fortunate enough to land at Liberty because they had an opening here. But I think Frisco because all opportunities you guys have over here and all the things you can do.” 

Wingspan: What do you like most about teaching here?

Lopez: “I like all the students to be honest with you, the students, faculty , and staff. You guys are really welcoming and really nice. You guys do everything that we ask you to do, you guys are really helpful.”

Wingspan: What made you want to study biology?

Lopez: “I initially wanted to be a dentist, which is something I might continue to pursue later in my career, that was my initial plan.” 

Wingspan: Have you always enjoyed biology? If not, when did you start to take an interest in it? 

Lopez: “I haven’t. So when I was in high school I hated biology, I really did. But once I got into college, I started to get into it a little bit more detailed, because right now biology is really just vocabulary and you don’t get into too much detail. So once you get into college they start explaining things further like how medicine works against bacteria and viruses, things like that. So college is where it gets a bit more interesting.” 

Wingspan: Where are you from?

Lopez: “I am from El Paso, Texas.”

Wingspan: What are you most looking forward to about this year? 

Lopez: “Helping students out. I’m a coach so I’m real big into sports, but I usually look forward to students growing and learning, and looking to me for advice, I’m hoping to help as many students as I can.”

Wingspan: What has been the most difficult thing to adjust to on campus? 

Lopez: “I’d say block schedule because at my old school we didn’t have block schedule, so we would have 8 periods a day, so I’d have to teach the same thing 7 times a day. So adjusting to block schedule I only have 2 periods a day, which is awesome, so in the afternoons I’m usually off, but it’s been awesome.”

Wingspan: Is it difficult managing being a football coach and a teacher?

Lopez: “It is difficult, the way I coach out on the field is completely different to the way I teach here, so you have to approach it a different way. Especially dealing with guys out on the football field vs. girls and guys in the classroom. It is different but my approach stays the same, I like to be open minded to make everyone feel real comfortable around me, that way if they have any questions, they feel free to open up to me.”

Wingspan: What do you hope to achieve this year?

Lopez: “In the classroom I’m hoping to have 100 percent passer rating, and that’s for all of my classes. I’m hoping they can pass the nine weeks, I’m hoping they can pass their STAAR tests, I’m hoping that they learn. If there are any students that need help, I hope that I can lend a helping hand, and help them to pass.”

Much of the school’s administration is the same as it was in 2018-19, but there’s one new face in the assistant principal’s office. Recently Wingspan caught up with Adan Escoto, the AP overseeing students with last names that range from F-L. 

Wingspan: Where are you from, mainly which school you came from and what spurred you on to become an AP?

Escoto: “Okay, I actually grew up in Houston. The town I grew up in was called Spring Ranch, which was the district I wound up going into. I actually became an assistant principal six years ago and the reason I became an assistant principal was, to tell you the truth, I have been kind of the team lead for the subject areas including science, I was always the team lead for Biology and physics. Everybody always told me you should go into administration because you have great ideas and you’re great with kids. That was kind of the driving force just trying to make an impact.”

Wingspan: How difficult was it to rise to your position?

Escoto: “Actually I’d say I was very lucky in doing it, it was actually honestly pretty easy. It was my wife who kind of pushed me into being an administrator. The roads still not easy and go to school to take classes, there’s that part that usually you don’t talk about.”

Wingspan: Do you find your job fun and what do you like about it?

Escoto: “What I like about it is meeting many different types of kids. You have your athletes, you have your kids who’re in theater, your kids that like for example dungeons and dragons. So You Know you get to meet all kinds of differing types of kids, not just kids that you had when you were a teacher but you get to see a wide amount of personalities and interests”

Wingspan: What are your duties on campus?

Escoto: “You know honestly I have been enjoying my time here and honestly I like walking around the halls and meet new kids. Making it a safe environment for everybody.”

Wingspan: So what was your childhood like and what made you want to teach?

Escoto: “In my childhood there were four of us and honestly as far as teaching growing up neither of my parents went to college so going to college was instilled that I don’t know how you’re going to college or who’s paying but you’re going. Growing up I always did service at church kind of like vacation bible school, like I said I was good with kids and originally in college I wanted to go to Pre-Med until realizing all the stresses you had going to pre-med school, I didn’t want to worry about that because I had struggled already getting to college and didn’t want to struggle beyond that. I figure with teaching there’s a passion to that that you’re helping somebody else out. Sometimes whether or not the need is there you always somehow end up helping one kid and that’s what I enjoy about it.”

Wingspan: “So what was your first day at liberty like?”

Escoto: “It was fun like i said. I actually had a good day that day different than what I was used to but it was a fun day for me.”