21 years and counting!

For Mr. Weller, this is his eighteenth year teaching at Armijo, although he did spend three years at Salinas High School before that. While 21 years may sound like a long time to be working, teaching was not his first job. 

Before that, he worked with Leslie Pool Supply in San Jose, spent some time with the United Parcel Service (UPS) in Los Angeles doing both warehouse work and serving as a delivery driver, drove a Brinks truck in Monterey, worked with a contractor in Carmel California, and did some landscaping jobs in Carmel Valley. From the mid-‘90s to the early 2000s, he worked with the Fed Ex Corp in Monterey as a route fill-in driver, a  helper and front desk doing Customer Service. While at Fed Ex, he also worked at the Carmel Valley Tennis and Racquet Club doing maintenance along and graded standardized tests at CTB McGraw Hill. 

All of that led to his current role as a teacher. “In early 2000, I began to substitute for the Salinas Unified School District which would eventually lead to a full time teaching position,” he said.  “After substituting off and on for six months, I made the decision to pursue my teaching credential. At the time in my life, it was a chance to pursue a more stable job which would lead to a career for me so that I could take care of my very young children.”

Before he became a teacher, of course, he was a student. During the late 70s and early 80s, he attended Marist High School, a private prep school in Atlanta, Georgia, which included seventh to twelfth grades. Then he went to college in Tennessee at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, about 30 miles south of Nashville. It was a “great experience,” he said. “Not too big or small.” 

While it took him a while to settle in to a teaching profession, he was greatly influenced by his parents, “along with the strong work ethic that I picked up from attending the prep school that I attended.”

Most of those years teaching have been pretty routine, but last March, when COVID-19 became an issue, things changed. “COVID- 19 forced me to completely shift my teaching style using Google Classroom and relying on online materials only for instruction,” said Mr. Weller. “My students, of course, were also suddenly thrown into this new learning platform which was tricky until we kind of got a routine established for the remainder of the 2019/2020 school year. Upon return with the 2020/21 school year, things began to fall into place, but still challenging with two programs being taught at a time.” 

Despite his diverse career experiences, Mr. Weller has found time to have fun. He said that he loves to travel, both in the United States and overseas. He also enjoys backpacking, “pulling my travel trailer whenever I get a chance to visit National Parks or other points of interest,” he said. “I also enjoy gardening, biking, jogging, the occasional bad game of golf, beach time and cooking, when not rushed.” Now that his young children are grown, he enjoys spending time with them, his wife, his, step-children and grandchildren. 

Sometimes, when students find the diverse opportunities in teaching, they consider it as a career, and Mr. Weller can relate to the challenges involved in the pursuit of that career. “My advice for future teachers is to give it a chance, stick with it for at least five to seven years so you can find your rhythm. Consider the subject matter that you are interested in teaching and how you are going to keep your future students motivated and excited about the material. Most importantly, you need to take on every day with a positive outlook and learn from your teaching experiences. “