Photos taken by Lauren Pak

Mrs. Bush – AP Studio Art, Art Media, Intermediate Drawing and Printmaking 

1. Why did you become a teacher?
   “I became a teacher because I want to help the youth feel confident about themselves and know that they are capable of achieving things and getting past things that they are afraid to do. I wanted to specifically be an art teacher because I love art in general and [I love] to teach different techniques and see which one each student ends up connecting with.”
2. What are some of your current hobbies?
   “Definitely painting, digital work, collage and mixed media [takes up] the majority of my free time but I also do yoga.”
3. What is one of your hidden talents?
   “There is this one weird thing I can do with my tongue that nobody [I’ve met] has ever been able to do. I am really good at choosing what animal [people] would be or a different name they would have; it takes me a long time though and I really have to concentrate.”
4. What would students be surprised to find out about you?
   “I like a lot of metal music and I have a lot of credit card debt from online shopping. Also, I feel peoples’ energy so strongly; I’m very affected by my environment and that’s why I am very sensitive. If somebody is in the room and they are not feeling that well, I feel it and it’s uncomfortable for me.”
5. What is your dream vacation?
   “Probably a perfectly [temperate] Hawaii [vacation]. I don’t want to be cold or hot, I don’t want the water too cold and I want a nice breeze.”
6. What would your last meal be?
   “I would choose all of the sides from Thanksgiving dinner.”
7. What is your favorite movie or TV show and why?
   “My favorite kids movie since I can’t choose a favorite now is Matilda because I always wanted to have powers and I think that I do actually!”
8. What is your typical weekend?
   “I wake up, go to hot yoga, come back and do a bunch of art, hangout with friends, husband and family and then probably have people come over. I also [might] go to an art show since I go to a lot of art shows in LA, meet weird artists and talk to weird people..”
9. What is one food you hate and why?
   “I do not like chocolate. If I were to eat a Reese’s peanut butter cup it would have to be the inside, not the outside because it’s too chocolatey. If it’s a little bit of chocolate like mint chip ice cream then it’s fine but I cannot eat a chocolate chip cookie, they are disgusting to me. [Chocolate] tastes like burnt dirt. I would rather choose something fruity [like] sour patch kids.”
10. What’s the best thing about being a teacher?
    “The best thing is seeing you guys embrace your inner weirdo and not be afraid to be the freak that you are. I love to see you guys be original and not be scared that somebody else is going to think that you’re wrong for being that way.”
11. What is the worst thing about being a teacher?
    “The worst thing about being a teacher is censoring yourself. I can’t be 100% of who I am because it’s “inappropriate” just to be a human. But since I’m here so often, I have such strong relationships with [my students] that it is hard to not be myself all the time. It’s a very hard thing for teachers to understand where to [draw] the line because you want to give all of yourself as a teacher but you have to protect yourself too.”
12. In which other teacher’s class would you like to enroll in for a day?
    “It’s so hard because I loved going to school and taking different classes but if I had to choose one, I would probably choose Mr. Scatz class because he knows so much about science and lately I’ve had this mindset of knowing things matter but also that little things don’t really matter so I would just love to have a conversation with him about it.”
13. What current trend confuses you? Why?
    “Specifically about Tik Tok, the five facial expressions that are practiced amongst [teens]. Any tik tok video with a dance, they will do [something like] biting the tongue or a half smile and it is just so rehearsed. I don’t mind the dance part, I think that part’s fun.”
14. How do you remember all of your student’s names?
    “I just make relationships with them and that’s their name. When I go meet people out in the world it’s [hard for me] to remember their name because I have around 200 names [from school] to remember and I think that’s my limit.”
15. If you could take your students anywhere in the world for a field trip, where and why?
    “Definitely Italy and if I had to choose one city, Florence. Actually I would change it to Paris because it has amazing art, [specifically] the Picasso Museum, and [he’s] my favorite artist.”
16. If you could pass on any wisdom to your students, what would you share?
    “I would say don’t waste your time being insecure and just be yourself. Try different things that look interesting to you and also be able to apologize and own up for things that are wrong because that shows strength, not weakness.”

Ms. Jones – English 11AP and 9CP

1. Why did you become a teacher?
   “I wanted to do advertising initially but then one winter session when I was in college, I took a children’s literature class and that professor just totally got me interested in the idea of teaching.”
2. What are some of your current hobbies?
   “Going to concerts, running [and] taking naps.”
3. What is one of your hidden talents?
   “I can recite a lot of Shakespeare.”
4. What would students be surprised to find out about you?
   “I can’t really cook, I’m really bad.”
5. What is your dream vacation?
   “Bora Bora”
6. What would your last meal be?
   “A really good cheeseburger and french fries.”
7. What is your favorite movie or TV show and why?
   “That’s a tough one. I’ve been really into watching this TV show called Live PD which is like cops, but live. Something about it, I just can’t get over it.”
8. What is your typical weekend?
   “Walk the dog, go for a run, maybe go to a concert, maybe take a nap and that’s about it.”
9. What is one food you hate and why?
   “I’m allergic to avocado. I don’t hate it, but it will just destroy me if I eat it.”
10. What’s the best thing about being a teacher?
    “Getting the summers off”
11. What is the worst thing about being a teacher?
    “Whiny students”
12. In which other teacher’s class would you like to enroll in for a day?
    “Ooh, Ms. Dale, she’s just so funny”
13. What current trend confuses you? Why?
    “Tik Tok, I don’t know what that is.”
14. How do you remember all of your student’s names?
    “I try to [during] the first couple weeks of school to look at a kid and say the name a couple of times and then I will silently go around while you’re working on stuff and try to [recite] them.”
15. If you could take your students anywhere in the world for a field trip, where and why?
    “Probably Stratford where I did my Masters to talk about all the Shakespeare.”
16. If you could pass on any wisdom to your students, what would you share?
    “Don’t stress too much about high school, it only gets harder.”

Ms. Andrew/Fischer – AP and Honors Biology 

1. Why did you become a teacher?
   “I liked biology so I knew I wanted to go into biology and it was getting towards the end, I knew I didn’t want to go into medical school; research might have been interesting but I had done some tutoring and I just enjoyed all forms of science so teaching kind of made sense.”
2. What are some of your current hobbies?
   “Playing soccer. I am part of some rec[reational] teams.”
3. What is one of your hidden talents?
   “I’m not talented at it anymore, but I was in dance growing up.”
4. What would students be surprised to find out about you?
   “I like anime and I have gone to anime expos.”
5. What is your dream vacation?
   “Either tropical or I really like Scotland and Ireland… opposites of each other.”
6. What would your last meal be?
   “It would be a very large meal. I guess no matter what there would be french fries”
7. What is your favorite movie or TV show and why?
   “The Lord of the Rings in general but I think the entire series would be a top one.”
8. What is your typical weekend?
   “There’s a little bit of grading, just walking my dog, playing a soccer game potentially, watching some Netflix and maybe reading.”
9. What is one food you hate and why?
   “Liver. My grandmother made us eat it but it had a very awful texture and taste.”
10. What’s the best thing about being a teacher?
    “I think it’s a new experience each day and you guys make it fun.”
11. What is the worst thing about being a teacher?
    “Grading”
12. In which other teacher’s class would you like to enroll in for a day?
    “I guess Mr. Holloway. Everyone always talks about him but I have never seen him teach so that would be interesting.”
13. What current trend confuses you? Why?
    “It doesn’t confuse me but I am not a social media person, so just the obsession over it.”
14. How do you remember all of your student’s names?
    “Passing back papers to them helps associate names with faces.”
15. If you could take your students anywhere in the world for a field trip, where and why?
    “If money was no [concern] I went to Florida my junior year of AP Bio, so a big trip like that would be really cool.”
16. If you could pass on any wisdom to your students, what would you share?
    “Don’t stress you are going to be just fine.”

Mrs. Darden- French 3CP and Spanish 1CP

1. Why did you become a teacher?
   “I’ve always enjoyed working with others, i love languages, and i had the opportunity to live in Spain for a year and France for eight months in college.”
2. What are some of your current hobbies?
   “I love hiking, I enjoy running, and I enjoy being with my family and traveling.”
3. What is one of your hidden talents?
   “I hope [that it would be that] I speak Spanish, French and I took two and a half years of Japanese in college.”
4. What would students be surprised to find out about you?
   “That I have been to forty countries in the world. Just last year I went to Mongolia and Siberia with my parents. It was wonderful.”
5. What is your dream vacation?
   “My dream vacation is to travel to as many countries as I can in the world, in my lifetime.”
6. What would your last meal be?
   “Vegetarian, probably a mix of many cultures’ foods.”
7. What is your favorite movie or TV show and why?
   “A Netflix series called ‘Gran Hotel.’” 
8. What is your typical weekend?
   “My typical weekend is spending time with my family, hiking, trying to get my boys to go take a hike with me, and cleaning to be honest, and occasional date nights with my husband.”
9. What is one food you hate and why?
   “A food that I do not like… I don’t like venison very much, I only tried it once and didn’t like it.”
10. What’s the best thing about being a teacher?
    “Working with students… they keep us young.”
11. What is the worst thing about being a teacher?
    “I don’t really see any cons about teaching.”
12. In which other teacher’s class would you like to enroll in for a day?
    “I think Mrs. Carlile’s because I would love to see more sign language and see how much I could understand.”
13. What current trend confuses you? Why?
    “Sometimes the jargon, but I’m getting it. I’m starting to understand. Like ‘dip’ means ‘to leave’. I’m getting it!”
14. How do you remember all of your student’s names?
    “It does take me time. I try to associate [them] with somebody I’ve known before. It is a lot at the beginning, it’s a lot of practice.”
15. If you could take your students anywhere in the world for a field trip, where and why?
    “I would take my French students to France and my Spanish students to Spain because I fell in love with both countries.”

16. If you could pass on any wisdom to your students, what would you share?
“I would share embracing other cultures.”

Mr. Eby- AP Psychology

1. Why did you become a teacher?
   “I was actually coaching baseball here at WHS in college and realized I actually really enjoyed working with young people, and then I worked some summer camps and things like that and also enjoyed it. And I always enjoyed school and I really had some amazing teachers in my life, and so I at that point decided not to go to grad school for psychology and went and got my teaching credential.”
2. What are some of your current hobbies?
   “I’m an avid baseball fan and, as anybody that has ever been in my room knows, I love the Dodgers and you can see that all over [my classroom]. I also love reading; I read everyday. I love camping; my family travels all over the country in our motorhome and I guess that’s about it.”
3. What is one of your hidden talents?
   “Oh gosh… I don’t know if i have any real hidden talents. I guess public speaking for me. I don’t know if it’s a talent but I have no real issue with it. I’ve actually never written a speech in my entire life even though I’ve given quite a few.”
4. What would students be surprised to find out about you?
   “I don’t know, I’m a pretty open book, I think, in class so I don’t know. I think sometimes they’re surprised to find out that I get angry and I kind of do have a little bit of a temper but you don’t see it in class.”
5. What is your dream vacation?
   “My dream vacation would be going in my motorhome and just going to a bunch of different national parks in our country. I’ve been to over fifty and in my life I’d like to see all over 200 that we have.”
6. What would your last meal be?
   “It would have to be between prime rib and lobster or a burrito.”
7. What is your favorite movie or TV show and why?
   “One of my all time favorite shows is Madmen. Movie: I love Dead Poets Society. It’s one of my all time favorite movies as well. And last year, the Soloist which I showed you guys a little bit of [in AP Psych].”

8. What is your typical weekend?
“Most of my weekends are spent going to my kids’ U sports games so I have a sophomore and an eighth grader and they play lots of sports. So, going to them and sometimes catching up on schoolwork. My wife and I walk and hike every Saturday and Sunday as well, unless it’s raining, and then I’ll relax and watch some sports and do some reading.”
9. What is one food you hate and why?
“I hate brussel sprouts because I have a taste aversion because one time I got sick, and so I now have a taste aversion to brussel sprouts.”
10. What’s the best thing about being a teacher?
“Getting to see students enjoy the class and gaining something out of it. And then, having done this quite a while, is seeing them come back and seeing their careers and lives develop. I now have [past] students who have children and stuff and it’s really cool to see.”
11. What is the worst thing about being a teacher?
“For anyone, maybe it’s grading just because that’s the task that’s kind of like homework… you just don’t want to do it but it’s not that bad.”
12. In which other teacher’s class would you like to enroll in for a day?
“I think I would go take Forensics just because I’ve always been intrigued by that… just as a course, I would love to take that course because it is something that we never had when I was in school and I think I would really get excited about it.”
13. What current trend confuses you? Why?
“Tiktok! I have no idea, who cares. I don’t know why people watch videos of people doing stuff. The whole social media world to me, I don’t understand. I don’t have Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter… I don’t get it!”
14. How do you remember all of your student’s names?
“It’s actually just a natural thing for me. I’m just really good at remembering peoples’ names and stuff. I actually don’t have a process I use.”
15. If you could take your students anywhere in the world for a field trip, where and why?
“I never thought about that because we don’t get to go on field trips very often in Psychology. I guess I’d love to go to the Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI with my students and get them to meet people that do criminal profiling. I think students would really enjoy that and I would too.”
16. If you could pass on any wisdom to your students, what would you share?
“That you can’t control the future and all you can do is control what you are doing in the present time and if you are giving your best effort and you feel good about yourself, that’s all that really matters and you can’t worry about all of this extra stuff that just comes at you all the time.”