Interview With the New English Teachers
This year, the English department at VHS has gained 4 new teachers, including Sarah Avanessian, an AP Lang and Honors 9 teacher, Douglas Butler, an AP Lang and English 9 teacher, Charity Evans, an English 9 and 11 teacher, and Laura Graves, an Honors 9 and AP Lit teacher. We asked them some questions to get to know them better and see how they are liking Valencia so far.
Q. What school were you at before?
Sarah Avanessian: “I was at Castaic High School for 4 years and Hart High School for 17 years before that.”
A. Douglas Butler: “I was at Monrovia High School.”
A. Charity Evans: “I was at Golden Valley for about 6 years, but I came from another school district before that.”
A. Laura Graves: “I started at Hart for 8 years, then was at Castaic for 3 years after that.”
Q. What's your favorite thing about Valencia?
Sarah Avanessian: “I really like the students! They have been really polite and engaged, and very nice to each other from what I’ve seen in the classroom.”
Douglas Butler: “Everyone has been incredibly welcoming and nice to me! Students and staff have been very welcoming.”
Charity Evans: “At this point the English department is really collaborative. There are a lot of expert English teachers that we have so I can send a quick email and receive a lot of resources which I do for them too and it is really great.”
Laura Graves: “How welcoming everyone is! Both staff and students have created a very supportive environment.”
Q. What made you want to teach English?
Sarah Avanessian: “I actually became a teacher by accident! My grandpa was a teacher, and a teacher at his school quit mid-year, and they asked me to fill in since I had a degree in English. They hired me and said that I could stay if I joined a credential program to get my teaching credential.”
Douglas Butler: “My mom was a teacher and so is my sister, so teaching has always been in the back of my head. Also, when I was in high school I had an English teacher who had a really big impact on me. He made a big point of not only being a good teacher, but also being a compassionate, good person. He made me realize that I could do that as a teacher too.”
Charity Evans: “The community I lived in and the family I came from serviced the community. When I was a kid my dad was a very good role model and did things like food banks and my mom as well. My brother is a teacher, I have a sister who is a social worker, I have a family member who works with special needs kids, and I have another family member who works in elementary and we just really think it's important to give back to our community because that’s just what our family does since we value that and my parents modeled that really well for me. The area where I grew up had higher levels of poverty so there was a passion to help people go from levels of poverty to a different life through providing more resources and better education. I've spent most of my career in title 1 schools which are high poverty schools, with the goal to help students underprivileged circumstances, but recently I moved to Valencia because it's time for me to be closer to home and serve my community which I've done for over 10 years.”
Laura Graves: “I love reading and writing and saw how those skills are really important, so I hoped to inspire that in young people.”
Q. What's been your favorite moment/memory of teaching?
Sarah Avanessian: “The moment when a student finally gets it, the moment it clicks for them.”
Douglas Butler: “Going to graduations is such a unique experience at the high school level. It’s so fun and emotional to see students that you’ve had before going off into the real world and entering adulthood. That’s a moment that’s always really special to me.”
Charity Evans: “It’s always students. That's why teachers teach. Rather that is a student who starts off a school year and doesn’t have the social skills for something and at the end they are successful, or a student that has a mental health issue that you've helped and worked with in the background and they come and give you a big hug with tears in their eyes when they graduate saying, “You meant so much to me,” or a student who didn't think about going to college but by the time you are done they are going to college and you’ve helped them down that pathway.”
Laura Graves: “A few years ago I led a trip where I took 18 students to Europe. We went to Shakespeare's birthplace and saw his wife's house. The whole experience was amazing.”
Q. What has surprised you the most about Valencia?
Sarah Avanessian: “How big it is. It’s the biggest school that I’ve taught at.”
Douglas Butler: “How big the campus is honestly. This place is huge!”
Charity Evans: “I don’t know if I’ve been surprised, like I said I’ve been doing this for a while and I’ve taught at different schools teaching a variety of grades and students with different backgrounds. I’ve had a lot of experience in the classroom so I think it’s hard to surprise me.”
Laura Graves: “How giant the campus is! I haven’t even been past the library yet.”
Q. What's your favorite book?
Sarah Avanessian: “The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley.”
Douglas Butler: “At the moment, We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.”
Charity Evans: “Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms by Joe Feldman.”
Laura Graves: “Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.”
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