Creating an impact beyond the natural sciences

Mr. Brandon Weyandt is both a chemistry earth teacher and Work Experience coordinator. He currently teaches in D-9 and has been at Armijo since the year 2008, but his path at the school has not been completely consistent. After he was originally hired, he was bounced around due to layoffs, but he has been back at AHS for the past three years.

Although there are many cons to teaching, Mr. Weyandt does not regret his job at all. ”Teaching is full of love,” he said. “I want to be a person that positively influences people’s view of themselves and what they can do in their lives, not just in science.”

Students have changed since distance learning and Mr. Weyandt recognized that. “We are gaining a lot of it back, but we lost a huge middle section of student effort,” he said. Mr. Weyandt graduated high school in 1999 and took some years off before attending Napa Valley Community College for two years. From there he transferred to California Baptist University, graduating in 2006. A couple of years later, he transferred to Fortune School of Education for his credential, graduating there in 2009 while he was already working at Armijo. He graduated from the University of the Pacific in 2012 with his Masters.

Over the past years, Mr. Weyandt has had several additional experiences with teaching math, coaching baseball and, last but not least, leadership at Sem Yeto. He created lots of his favorite memories at Sem Yeto during his leadership days, but said that he would never go back due to the stress it had caused. One of his favorite Armijo memories, however, was when the students do a lab where they burn a Cheeto like a match. The goal is to measure how much energy it releases and it never disappoints.