New staff member Tiffany Thayer has taught at three school districts before, but this year decided to join Frisco ISD here at The Nest.  She’s an on level geometry teacher who graduated from Northwestern Oklahoma State University for her undergraduate degree and Lamar University for her graduate degree. She enjoys coaching both volleyball and softball, CrossFit, and meeting new people. Wingspan sat down with Thayer to find out more about who she is as a teacher.

Wingspan: How have you enjoyed teaching here since school started?

Tiffany: “It’s really great. People are, for the most, part really positive. So it’s nice.”

Wingspan: How does this school differ from your old schools?

Tiffany: “I think the positivity and then my mindset of student learning is a lot different. Like it’s more focused on students actually understanding content and less about just going through the motions.”

Wingspan: Why did you become a teacher?

Tiffany: “Probably more so for the coaching aspect of it, but also just like serving people, while also teaching is just kind of naturally my gift in life.”

Wingspan: How have you handled managing being a volleyball coach, softball coach, and a teacher?

Tiffany: “A lot of grace from God. Just managing my time and handling a schedule and using the given time to work on school stuff and then when I need to, working on my coaching stuff.”

Wingspan: If you could teach any other subject or class, what would it be and why?

Tiffany: “It would be a PE or like motivational studies or something a little bit more student led. People don’t like math. Especially high school students.”

Wingspan: Have you always wanted to be a teacher or coach, or did you have previous aspirations?

Tiffany: “Growing up I always knew that I was going to be a teacher or a coach. I thought that I would go straight into college coaching, but then things changed coming out of college. I thought for a little bit that I would probably do more nutrition and dietitian stuff, but I just never left the teaching pursuit.”

One of more than a dozen new teachers on campus, Seth Morrow coaches football, soccer, and baseball as well as teaching health classes. He recently graduated from Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant, OK where he played baseball for three years. He also attended Wichita State University in Wichita, KS, and briefly attended McLennan Community College in Waco where he also played baseball. Wingspan recently sat down with Morrow to find out more about one of the newest Redhawks. 

Wingspan: What made you want to teach?

Morrow: “What made me want to teach was when I was growing up, I thought I had really good teachers and I was fortunate enough to go to a really good high school down in San Antonio called Reagan High School. And a lot of those teachers really had a big influence on my life. Not just academically but also anything outside of school, they helped you, they were there for you. And also my mom has been a teacher for 25 years and she teaches at Liscano Elementary. Just seeing what she’s dealt with throughout her career, she loves it, she loves the kids but it can also be a tough job and it’s been cool this is something I can share with her.”

Wingspan: Is that the same reason you wanted to be a coach?

Morrow: “I wanted to be a coach also kinda the same reason, I had really good coaches growing up and I always kinda thought I could connect with kids well, especially athletes, just because I felt like as a player growing I always connected with the coaches that didn’t just care about you on the field but also off the field.”

Wingspan: What do you think about this school?

Morrow: “So far I’ve loved Liberty. Principal [Stacey] Whaling is awesome, she’s been helping me as much as she can. Coach [Matt] Swinnea, the head football coach, has been awesome. He’s been helping me out, learning how to coach football cause that’s something that’s kinda out of my realm and I’ve kinda had to learn as I go along. Cause I only got hired two weeks before school even started, so I had to play catch up pretty quick. Yeah everyones been really really really caring and had helped me out a lot along the way.”

Wingspan: What do you think will be your favorite part of the school year?

Morrow: “I think the favorite part of the school year for me is just, it’s my first year and I’ve already started to really care for the kids I have in my room, and I’ve been trying to connect with them. And all the kids here have been helping me just as much as I feel like I’ve been helping them.”

Wingspan: How long do you think you’ll teach?

Morrow: “I think I’ll teach for as long as I can take it mentally and emotionally. Right now I’m young so right now, nothing has really gotten to me yet but I know every teacher kinda has days where they go home and they’re like, “I don’t know if I wanna do this anymore” and I just know that cause of stuff I’ve seen that my moms had to go through with certain places she’s been at cause she’s been at a lot of different schools. I think I’m gonna stick it out and I at least wanna try and do it until I’m 50.” 

Wingspan: How do you think your teams will perform this year?

Morrow: “I think football wise we played our first game and it was a little rough, but there was a lot of good things but also a lot of stuff we can build on and I think the game we have this week is a very winnable game and I think our kids are gonna be ready for it and I think we’re gonna go out and get our first W in a while cause we went 0-10 last year, we lost our first game. We need to get the monkey off our back and get that first win of the way and I think we’ll start rolling from there.”

Wingspan: What was your favorite part of playing baseball?

Morrow: “My favorite part of playing baseball, I’m gonna say two different parts, was being in the locker room and I was fortunate enough to go to three different colleges for baseball so I made 40 new friends each place I went and all my friends are from baseball. Also my favorite part of baseball was hitting a homerun, I love hitting home runs. Not to brag or anything but I got to hit quite a few when I was in college and it was fun.”

Wingspan: How do you think your relationships with other teachers will be?

Morrow: “So far it’s been great, I’ve needed a lot of help because I’m a new teacher and people have been helping me left and right with whatever I need. So far it’s been great but my goal is to kinda not just be friends with teachers who are coaches but also grab ideas from people that teach and have done it a long time.”

Wingspan: Do you think you’ll teach differently five to ten years in the future than you do now?

Morrow: “Yeah I think I will, just because you’re always learning and growing especially in a profession like teaching. I think it’s important to evaluate what you’ve done and make it better for the students.”

Among the many new teachers on campus for the 2023-24 school year is Andrew Lamas who is teaching AP Human Geography and World History. Before coming to campus he taught world culture and theater at Stafford MIddle School and is looking forward to this year. Growing up in Frisco, he went to Rogers Elementary School, Staley Middle School, and Wakeland High School. He went to the University of Arkansas and graduated from University of North Texas. He enjoys playing board games and collecting shoes. Wingspan sat down with Lamas to find out more about who he is as a teacher. 

Wingspan: What made you want to be a teacher? What was your motivation and reason behind that?

Lamas: “I actually worked with a children theater for eight years and I really liked working with the kids there. I was looking into different jobs that I could work with children and staff members, so I actually ended up teaching theater for two years before deciding to go back into social studies. So that is one of the reasons I got into teaching.”

Wingspan: Why did you choose to teach here?

Lamas: “Well, I grew up in Frisco and I went to all my first and secondary schooling here. I loved teaching for Frisco ISD, and I actually taught at Stafford Middle School last year. My dad, the other Mr. Lamas, also works here, so I thought it would be cool to work with family, but also I just really wanted to move to an high school environment. There was also an open social studies position, which helped.”

Wingspan: Do you like teaching here so far and why or why not?

Lamas: “Yeah, I love teaching here at Liberty High School. The students are great, the staff and the admins are awesome and really supportive, and the school has a good culture so I truly like it here.”

Wingspan: What was your best experience of teaching?

Lamas: “My best experience was when I came back to Frisco as a teacher and I got to experience working collaboratively with students at Stafford Middle School. Coming back into the culture that I grew up in and how I experienced working with students in a similar way that I learned was the best experience of teaching just overall.”

Wingspan: What is something challenging that you’ve learned to overcome here on campus?

Lamas: “So, I never taught two classes before because for the past few years, I only taught one class at a time. Therefore, just the extra preparation I have to put in was one of the challenges. Also, I did not take AP Human Geography as a student so having to learn the class materials a couple of steps ahead of the students and just making sure I am prepared and ready to go on all of my stuff for both classes was a challenge that I have learned to overcome here on campus.”

Wingspan: Which unit are you most excited to teach as a teacher in your subject and why?

Lamas: “For AP Human Geography, I am excited about the migration unit and the political movement as I am really interested in that. For world history, I am really excited for the Classical Civilizations unit, which is coming up. I am a huge Roman Greece person so I really like learning and teaching that part of history.”

Wingspan: How do you think you can further improve your teaching?

Lamas: “Learning new ways to engage students and to create creative ways to implement different activities as well as text resources is something I can do to improve my teaching. Currently, my goal is to balance paper and tech assignments and I think that if I do that, I can really improve.”

Wingspan: What are your thoughts on this campus besides teaching? Like the environment or atmosphere between students and teachers, teacher to teacher, or student to student.

Lamas: “I think the atmosphere here is quite great. I actually think that this school has the most positive atmosphere I have ever been to as a teacher. The students want to know about me, have conversations outside the classroom material, and the teachers are awesome. In the social studies department, we have lunch together every day so it is really cool to catch up and learn about each other. On the admins side, they are very supportive of everything I have been a part of so far. I get opportunities to learn new things and advance my knowledge as a teacher so I think that the culture here is phenomenal.”

Wingspan: What are your goals for this year besides teaching and why do you want to pursue them?

Lamas: “I have been married for a little over a year, so we are past the initial mark of figuring out married lives. My goal is to just see and look out for what comes next in this journey, and to see how my wife and I are planning for that.” 

Wingspan: What are some hobbies you like to do in your free time and why?

Lamas: “I really like to play board games during my free time. My two favorites are Moonrankers and Settlers of Catan. I also like to go country dancing, like Two Steps, and swing dancing. I have been doing them since I was younger so I think I still held on to it.”

Wingspan: As a final question, what are some fun facts about you and how did that come to be?

Lamas: “I was actually once accused of being of a spy in Russia. So basically, I was working with a group teaching English in Russia, and my supervisors were accused of being American spies. The Russian Government soon enough decided that they did not want my supervisors there. A fifteen minute news report later my supervisors got deported, but I was allowed to stay and that is a fun fact about me!”