Jennifer Herrera is a new English teacher here on campus. She’s originally from California and graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara getting a Masters in teaching credential. She’s been teaching for nine years, taught kindergarten for most of her life, and this is her first year teaching high school. Wingspan sat down with Herrera to learn more about her.

Wingspan: What made you choose to teach English?

Herrera: “I love, love, love, reading and writing, like it’s my passion so I thought if it’s something I’m passionate about maybe I can get kids passionate about it. I think kids can sense when a teacher loves the content, so I’m just  much more of an English minded person than a math and science teacher.”

Wingspan: If you couldn’t teach English what subject would you teach?

Herrera: “That’s hard, I guess I would say like creative writing but that’s all probably a part of English, maybe something like in the career technology department, maybe like a cooking or a home ec something along that line.”

Wingspan: What do you enjoy about teaching English?

Herrera: “I think it’s just exciting to see students’ interests and different genres and just kinda discovering and figuring out new genres and or even maybe finding that one book that might like hook ’em’ ya’ know, because not every student loves to read or loves to write. So I love seeing that like students embrace challenges and read new genres and discover things that they didn’t know they liked and just seeing kids take risks in their writing and just like really seeing their voices come out in their writing which will be more as we get into the year but I’d say that I just love engaging with the kids thats my favorite part.”

Wingspan: Have you always wanted to be a teacher?

Herrera: “I have always wanted to be a teacher, I think if I had to choose a different profession I would have maybe considered nursing or pursued writing or maybe even counseling or therapy.”

Wingspan: What is the most challenging part of teaching?

Herrera: “For me I would say the balance of work and family life, their was always a lot to do to be a good teacher, a lot of paperwork, a lot of grading, a lot of lesson planning and then I go home to ya’ know a big family and responsibility at home so I think for me trying to find that balance of making sure I carve out that time for myself or for my family and not get burned out with just working all the time and bringing stuff home so time management and things like that.”

Wingspan: In high school what clubs did you participate in?

Herrera: “I really didn’t. I really was kinda focused on my academics and it was different back then it wasn’t, clubs weren’t quite as primitive as they are now. I went to a lot of school events but I didn’t really participate in clubs.”

Wingspan: Describe a typical day of being an English teacher?

Herrera: “Oh boy, a typical day, uh I don’t think any day is typical, let see, I get up sometimes I try to workout before work, I get to school at 8:15 and make sure I’m ready for the day but I usually plan out the day before so I’m ready for the morning, students start coming around 8:45, 9:00 the bell rings I always do a question of the day, take attendance and then we kinda have some discussion and then we get into whatever the lesson of the day is, and then usually there is some down time at the end of the period for students to not have to do homework at home and finish whatever assignments, and then my last period I don’t get done until 4 40 so about 30 minutes after work and just get organized for the next day and figure out what I need to bring home and then I go home to my family I usually don’t take my work out of my bag even though I brought it home and that’s about it!”

Wingspan: What’s your favorite book and author?

Herrera: “Oh gosh that’s hard, I have so many but I think the one that always stands out is the book called Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult, it’s just one that kinda just stayed with me forever that I could read and reread over and over again which I don’t typically do but yea I would say that it is Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult.”