Precalculus and Algebra I teacher Tiffany Spohrer hated math in high school. However, her feelings for math changed in college, when she took a prerequisite physics class, sparking an interest in math and science.

“I took a physics class [in college] and I realized how much I loved the application of math,” Spohrer said.

While in high school, Spohrer described herself as academically gifted but behaviorally challenged, which fueled her passion for teaching.

“I was a good student academically, but behaviorally, I really liked chatting in class and skipping class, which I think made me want to be a teacher — because I wanted to help students similar to me.”

Along with helping students she could empathize with, Spohrer was drawn to helping younger students through a notoriously difficult and often discouraging subject.

“I learned to love [math] in college, when I was studying it, and my professor had us tutor kids in high school,” Spohrer said.

Spohrer said she found joy in seeing other students find their own interests and helping them discover their love for math.

“I loved tutoring high school kids and helping them figure out connections,” Spohrer said. “I wanted to do it as a profession to help high school students figure out the joy of math and physics.”

Meet Eric Simons: former environmental journalist, hockey enthusiast, author, and Burlingame’s newest geometry teacher.

Simons earned his undergraduate degree in political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he served as an editor for the school paper. He later received a Masters in journalism from UC Berkeley. He spent the next 20 years after college as a freelance writer and journalist for various newspapers and magazines.

“I really loved journalism as a job because it’s a chance to learn about the world,” Simon said. “I love the world, and I have always just loved to explore.”

In addition to journalism, Simons has published three books. He says each represents a different piece of his life. His first book, Darwin Slept Here, was about his experience following the famous naturalist Charles Darwin’s path through South America.

“I spent about a year…backpacking and taking long haul buses all the way down the coast from Northeastern Brazil to the very southern tip of the continent, and then back up the west coast into the deserts of Chile,” Simons said.

A couple years later, he wrote a book titled The Secret Life of Sports Fans, where he attempted to understand and explain the science behind sports addictions. Simons co-wrote his most recent book, At Every Depth, with oceanographer Tessa Hill. In his book, Simons seeks to explain what we know about the ocean and why we know it.

“Science is an important tool to understand the world, but as the ocean changes, some of the things we’ve known for a long time are becoming less true, and so [these changes] are also challenges to human knowledge and to the way we understand the world,” Simons said.

Despite his extensive experience in writing, Simons found the transition into math education very natural. In college, he was not only interested in journalism, but physics and science as well.

“It took me a long time in college to figure out a major in particular, because I was interested in everything, and I was taking classes in everything…” Simons said.

Now, with two and a half years of teaching experience, Simons is here at Burlingame and excited to be teaching geometry.

“There’s so many different ways of loving math and finding interest in math,” Simons said. “I hope that at the end of the year [every one of my students] finds something that [they found] interesting.”

After transitioning between schools in the Peninsula, Burlingame’s newest Ceramics and Digital Photography teacher Alex Hemmerich is eager to be the compassionate teacher he struggled to find during his childhood. Growing up in San Ramon, a suburb 35 miles east of San Francisco, Hemmerich said he often failed to connect with his high school teachers.

“I had a handful of stellar, amazing teachers, they were kind and empathetic. But I also had a lot of teachers that were basically the opposite of that. They were apathetic and uncaring,” Hemmerich said.

Hemmerich attended Diablo Valley College, where he majored in photography and quickly became deeply engrossed in the field.

“I fell in love with [film photography] because film photography is very tangible and I liked being in this dark space having to handle real film and watching my pictures come to life,” Hemmerich said.

Although Hemmerich’s teaching career began with graphic design and art, he eventually transitioned to his true passion: photography.

“I didn’t start teaching photography until I was at Saratoga [High School], where I taught photography for seven years. This is my eighth or ninth year teaching photography,” Hemmerich said.

As the year progresses, Hemmerich hopes to fine-tune his curriculum and learn from his students and colleagues.

“Anytime you go to a new school you have to learn the lay of the land,” Hemmerich said. “How best should I manage my classroom and what kind of modifications or tweaks do I need to adjust my curriculum to the new demographic?”

After selling everything and moving to Spain to teach English, Rachel Quillen realized that teaching was her passion. Growing up in San Mateo, she is excited to continue her interest in history by teaching at Burlingame.

Just up until two years ago, Quillen wanted work in law. She double majored in history and political science at the University of California (UC) Davis and worked as a paralegal for two years. 

Looking back on her career choice, Quillen thinks that she was initially pushed into law because others told her that she was good at writing and arguing. In reality, she didn’t feel fulfilled. She wanted to make a difference and realized that wasn’t going to happen for her while working in law.

“As a paralegal, I saw I couldn’t make a difference and I didn’t know what to do with my life, so I sold everything and moved to Spain for a year to teach English. When I was there, I fell in love with teaching and working with students,” Quillen said.

While in Spain, she was able to teach her students English and history, motivating her to pursue her master’s degree in education from Stanford University. This experience not only led her to pursue teaching but also to choose history as her subject of choice.
Her decision to teach at Burlingame was also motivated by a desire to return to the community she knew.

“My goal was always to come back to San Mateo, Burlingame, that area. It’s where my family is,” Quillen said. “I love being back here and being home, it feels right to be back in the district.”

Quillen was able to come home and, through perseverance and determination, she was ultimately able to find what she was looking for in a career. 

“[My greatest accomplishment in life is] staying true to who I am and knowing when something isn’t a good fit that there’s still time to try again. When I knew that I had kind of found a career I didn’t like, instead of sticking with it, I went with my gut, moved across the country, and found my true passion and job,” Quillen said.

Quillen’s interest in history started young, sparked by family trips around  California.

“[My parents] would take us to really niche historical spots that showed me sides of history I didn’t know about…” Quillen said.

Now as a teacher, Quillen hopes to share new historical perspectives of history with her students. 

“[My goal for this year is] to build community in my classroom, get to know my students, and show them signs of history that maybe they’ve never heard before,” Quillen said.

English teacher Jasmine Gill grew up in Woodside, California, where she said she struggled to engage with school during her high school years. It wasn’t until college, when her professors instilled in her a passion for learning, that her perspective shifted and inspired her to pursue a career in teaching.

“I really just didn’t care about school. I wasn’t bought in until I had a couple of teachers who really changed that,” Gill said.

Gill wanted to pursue a teaching career due to past teachers she’s had, who influenced her motivations to encourage the younger generations to express their opinions.

“I had a few teachers who made it feel really safe to be in their room, and I felt pretty seen,” Gill said. “In my English and history classes there were so many opportunities to say how you felt and give an opinion, and there weren’t many opportunities when I was growing up for kids to have their voice heard,” Gill said.

After attending the University of San Francisco for her Bachelors in art history and Columbia University for her Masters in environmental studies, Gill pivoted from advocating for sustainability to teaching. She just graduated from Stanford University with a Masters in Education this June, marking this as her first year teaching English.

“There’s such a focus on your perspective and being interested in other people’s perspectives, and just trying to gain empathy and understanding for the human experience, and so that is really appealing to me,” Gill said.

Gill said she loves the energy of the students at Burlingame and their efforts in class. Her aspirations for the year are to help create an environment in which all students feel encouraged to participate freely.

“[I want to help] students share their voice and feel like they are expanding their world, their thought process, their ideas, in a safe and engaging way,” Gill said.

Kelly Hensley, a veteran English teacher with three decades of experience, is eager to continue helping students reach their full potential this fall. Hensley will be teaching three types of English classes: English 1, Community Literacy in Action (CLA) 2, and English Language Development 3.

“Why do I teach it? Well, it was the subject I studied when I was in college. When I was younger, I really enjoyed reading — I never left home without a book,” Hensley said.

Hensley grew up in Stockton, California, and attended school in a nearby Lodi. He continued his education through community college at San Joaquin Delta College. After graduating, he joined the Army, which helped him qualify for the G.I. Bill, a bill that subsidizes higher education for veterans like Hensley.

“[The army] enabled me to save up money, and also use the G.I. Bill to pay for college. When I got out, I went to Sacramento State,” Hensley said.

Hensley majored in literature in college. Although he wasn’t initially certain about pursuing a teaching career, he decided to explore the field by applying for teaching positions abroad, ultimately teaching English in Japan.

“I did that for a year, and after that experience, I thought ‘I think this is what I want to do.’ I really enjoyed it,” Hensley said.

Hensley said that a couple of his goals include incorporating more technology into his classrooms. As a CLA teacher, he hopes to have as many kids as he can pass the Language Proficiency Assessments for California (LPAC) test.

“Those are part of the classes we train to take the state test called the LPAC, and I really want to try to get as many kids as I can to pass the test.”

Alongside his passion for teaching, Hensley has found a love of surfing in his free time.

“This summer, in the Kahuna Kupuna surf contest, I won first place in the short board division, and first place in the longboard division,” Hensley said.

Northern California native Meghan Tucker has years of experience across multiple jobs, but her passion for helping others ultimately led her to her current position as an academic specialist and teacher today.

This year, Tucker teaches English and co-teaches biology. As her role as an “academic specialist” suggests, Tucker specializes in all subjects but focuses primarily on making the curriculum more accessible for students.

As a San Bruno native, Tucker attended South San Francisco High School.

“I kind of was [kind of] all over the place, but in a good way. I was a good student,” Tucker said. “I usually got straight A’s, you know, a B here and there…I [also] went through my punk phase, so I had the bleached hair [and all the] different [colored] hair…”

Tucker’s past experiences helping the younger generations eventually led to her desire to start a teaching career.

“I think I always knew I wanted to be a teacher, because all through high school, I was a babysitter, a swim instructor, [and] a tutor,” Tucker said. “After I graduated, I was a classroom assistant for a while…[and later], I got a job as a substitute teacher at South City, [which] quickly turned into a full time position.”

Tucker began her post-high school education at Skyline College, completing her General Education requirements following high school. After Skyline, Tucker attended Notre Dame de Namur University (NDNU) in Belmont, earning her undergraduate degree in English and her Master’s degree in Special Education. However, she didn’t attend university until her mid-20s.

“I didn’t go to college [university] until I was 26, so I took a while before I went to school because I didn’t know [what I wanted to study],” Tucker said. “I wanted to figure it out first and not just go to get a degree that I may not end up doing anything with and spend all that money.”

After graduating from NDNU, Tucker taught at her high school for eight years before coming to Burlingame. She is enjoying Burlingame as she adjusts to the environment and familiarizes herself with the community.

“I really like how welcoming everyone is,” Tucker said. “Since day one, students and staff, all my colleagues, have been really nice and [have helped and supported] me when I don’t know a certain protocol or something like that in the school.”

Tucker said she hopes to continue to build relationships with students and staff around campus throughout the school year while giving back to the community. She’s also looking forward to watching school plays and swim meets in the spring.

Directed Studies algebra teacher and geometry co-teacher Greg Griffiths never thought he would end up in education. It was only until he became a volleyball coach that he discovered his love for teaching and helping students.

Throughout his career he has taught various math courses, including Griffiths’ personal favorite — financial literacy.

“You know people [ask], ‘what am I going to use [math] for? Financial literacy?’ You are going to use all of it, whether it’s right after graduation or into your 30s and 40s as well,” Griffiths said.

So far, he enjoys and appreciates the community Burlingame has to offer.

“Everyone has been extremely inviting and helpful, which is something that I haven’t experienced at every school,” Griffiths said.

Griffiths said he hopes to get more involved in the community and plans to combine his passions for teaching and sports by coaching volleyball at Burlingame.

Outside of school, Griffiths spends his free time with his dog outdoors and riding motorcycles.

A Burlingame fan through and through, Griffiths hopes the Panthers win back the coveted Paw during this year’s Little Big Game.

“I’m hoping Burlingame wins the Little Big Game this year,” Griffiths said. “I taught at San Mateo last year, and I’d like to talk some trash to my old coworkers.”

After teaching a variety of subjects — such as math, physical education, health, and art — in Vietnam and Laos, Christine Berube has found herself at Burlingame High School as the newest counselor.

“I found it really difficult to work with students one-on-one with teaching. There were students who I wanted to spend more time with, and I wanted to focus on students who were having specific challenges to help them along the way,” Berube said. “Instead of just having them as ninth graders, [ I want to see] what happened with that student in tenth grade, eleventh grade, and twelfth grade.”

Berube has had the experience of working at international schools, providing her with a different perspective on school itself, the students, and what the diversity within a school can bring.

“I liked working at the international schools because there were such a wide variety of nationalities. It was really neat because we did a lot of activities where we focused on people’s nationalities,” Berube said. “A major component of the international experience was recognizing everyone’s differences and really putting that on display and making that a focal point of the whole school atmosphere.”

Although having different exposures to teaching, Berube didn’t always want to be a teacher or counselor. Originally, she wanted to study marine biology; however, after learning about the many required chemistry courses, one of her weaker subjects in high school, she changed her mind.

After experiencing different careers, deciding what she likes and wants to pursue, Berube found a love for counseling.

“I feel like counseling is a lot of goal setting and decision making skills and knowing that it’s okay to have a goal and then modify it as you go along, even after high school,” Berube said. “I’m proud that I’ve been able to meet with a lot of students and help them with their schedules and hopefully alleviate a little bit of stress that students feel at the beginning of the year.”

 Along with executing her accomplishments in the year so far, Berube has also gained gratitude towards her colleagues who have helped her with managing her time and workload.

“The counseling team has been really helpful and supportive, and they remind me to take breaks, and that not everything’s an emergency. So even though there’s a lot of things to do, it’s okay to leave work at work and not take work home with me,” Berube said.

For the upcoming year, Berube would like to continue meeting with students and embrace all of what Burlingame has to offer.

“I would like to meet as many students as possible and really get a good understanding of where I need to be and really just to embrace as many of the BHS traditions as possible,” Berube said.

New Bay Academy teacher Douglas Mejia learned to manage a classroom as a high school teacher in Japan and is now ready to be the caring mentor that he once relied on during his own high school and college years.

Following high school, Mejia studied at the University of San Francisco, where he majored in computer science and comparative literature. When searching for a career option, Mejia joined a Japanese teaching exchange program where he taught at a high school as an assistant language teacher.

“I [taught in Japan] for four years and I really liked teaching. When I got back here, I started with the Bay University program and I was like this is what I want to teach,” Mejia said.

After his teaching interval in Japan, Mejia came to Burlingame, ready to take on more responsibilities as a teacher. He specifically chose to teach at Bay Academy because of the uniqueness of the program.

“It is really interesting to build relationships with students who communicate via different modalities, or have different levels of needs and I think you just don’t experience that in a general classroom,” said Mejia.

So far, Mejia said he has enjoyed his time in Burlingame and is pleasantly surprised by the students and teachers.

“I really like how there is a positive reception for Bay Academy and there is a generally accepting vibe for our students,” said Mejia.