It’s another fabulous Friday and we have more Team SLOCA members to introduce you to! After you find them, of course. Let’s play another round of our Friday Faces game, this time focusing on our high school teachers.
And we’ve decided to make it a little easier on you! We will give you the names of this week’s featured teachers (in a different order, of course), so you’re really just matching each name with their clues. We will also update the previous Friday Faces in this way, in case you want to go back and try those, if you haven’t yet.
Here are the instructions again: Read through the hints below and see if you can guess who each teacher is. To check your guesses and to learn more about them, see the Our Staff page, and read about each of the high school teachers listed here. Record your answers in the comments!
Here are this week’s teachers to choose from:
Paige Bartel
Nicholas Larson
Paul McCullough
Steve Rein
Tony Taylor
Rob Zbin
1. This language-loving musician with a subtle sense of humor can sometimes be seen around campus wearing sweatshirts culled from a local thrift store, emblazoned with titles such as “Cal Poly Grandpa.” He grew up in Sacramento, and in eighth grade he was inspired by the ancient Greeks, who “wanted to learn everything about everything, just for the sake of knowledge and the enjoyment of it.” He pursued his own education with that goal in mind from then on, and ended up earning a degree from Cal Poly before teaching in the area and finding SLOCA.
2. Here’s a teacher with diverse roles at SLOCA! He grew up in San Jose, has a B.S. in Zoology from UC Santa Barbara (perhaps Zoology has helped prepare him to work with our Grizzlies…), and several teaching credentials from Cal Poly. He and his wife direct a summer camp on the central coast, which is another skill he brings to our school. In his spare time, he intends to learn more about and practice digital cartography.
3. This busy teacher has worn many hats around SLOCA, both in teaching and technical areas. She was raised in a small town just outside of Yosemite National Park. As a high school student, she was determined to grow up and become a Nobel Prize winning researcher. Besides all the roles she fills at school, she is a SLOCA mom, and has also run two non-profits and worked as a doula. When she’s not at school, you’ll likely find her baking sourdough bread, brewing some sort of fermented drink, or camping with with her family in their vintage 60’s camper.
4. This “renaissance man” has a variety of interests and a passion for learning that has led him to excel in the fields of philosophy, mathematics, theater, education, and writing. He grew up and went to school in England. Just over a decade ago he and his family came to SLO on holiday, but ended up staying! When asked about his favorite piece of literature, his response was “Winnie-the-Pooh, by A.A. Milne, AND The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.” He plans to write a play in the year ahead.
5. This teacher believes kids are natural poets. He was a voracious reader as a child, but in high school he “stopped caring about everything except skateboarding, music, and girls.” Two of his freshmen year classes at Cal Poly changed all that, and taught him that there are important things to be found in books. Now he is once again a voracious reader. After earning multiple degrees, he taught for a time on the east coast at an all-girls boarding school. Then he discovered SLOCA and was happily called back to the central coast. He has many interests, from reading to farming to backpacking to baseball. And yes, he still skateboards.
6. In all the schools this teacher has been involved with, the mascots have been either horses or bears: Chargers, Bruins, Bears, Mustangs, and now Grizzlies. What are the odds? He could probably tell you, given his area of expertise. He grew up nearby in Goleta. He has been a part of the SLOCA community from almost the beginning. Reflecting on his own childhood eduction, he says he liked just about everything about school except for spelling.
Next week we will post the answers, but enter your guesses in the comments below!
Here are the correct answers to last week’s Lower and Upper Middle School Friday Faces:
1. Guy Kinnear
2. Pamela Gerhardt
3. Alanna Labine
4. Cade Newman
5. Jennifer Wright
6. AnnE Lorenzen
7. Wendy Rey
8. Sarah Weinschenk
