The final days of the first semester of the 2014-2015 school year have dwindled away. Freshmen have become comfortable with their new school, months ago losing the “deer in the headlights” look that comes with one’s first year of high school. But these young students aren’t the only ones who had to acclimate to a new environment. Sometimes overlooked are the new faculty and staff at our school. Every year, Jesuit loses and gains a few teachers. This year was a big one as far as faculty additions, with 12 members who will be completing their first year here in a faculty or staff position. These people include: Brandon Bub, Lisa Druebert, Christina Ellsworth, Stephen Hill, Jeff Hoffman, Joe Howard, Andrew Katz, David Lugo, S.J., Doug Moyse, Margaret Rodriguez, Enid Sanchez, and Matt Shoemaker.
Many of our new teachers have already experienced Jesuit from the other side of the coin. Alumni make up a large part of the new teaching staff, unable to stay away from Jesuit for too long. Brandon Bub, a 2010 graduate, returned to Jesuit to teach World and U.S. History. When asked about how he began teaching here, Mr. Bub explained, “Since I went to school at SMU, I was never too far away from Jesuit’s campus. I was always really close with a lot of my former teachers, and I also was fortunate enough to get to teach at Jesuit’s Higher Achievement Program for middle schoolers for the past 3 summers. This campus has always felt like home for me, and I knew that I wanted to do something related to education after finishing my degree, so when I was considering career options after college, Jesuit felt like a natural fit. When I heard that there was an opening in the Social Studies department last spring, I thought it was the perfect time for me to apply.”
On his expectations for teaching at his alma mater, Mr. Bub shared, “I was definitely expecting a challenge. I had a lot of tutoring experience in college and I’ve had classroom experience thanks to HAP for the past 3 summers, but I’d never taught a full course load like this before. When I found out I’d be teaching 5 sections and over 100 students, I thought that I might have been getting slightly in over my head. But it really has been a great experience so far. The challenge is there, but the reward is even greater (not to sound overly cliche).”
He also elaborated on the most surprising thing about teaching here: “I think the most surprising thing for me has been how long it takes to give good feedback on assigned material. I remember as a student being so frustrated when my teachers took multiple weeks to get my essays back to me, but now I know just how long it takes to read over 100 assignments. And when I think about my colleagues who have to balance all of the class planning and grading with family lives (spouses, children, etc.), it really astounds me that they can do this job with so much energy.” Jesuit students themselves though, “are still very much the same.” Mr. Bub shared the story of “when my juniors made an email account called ‘Bub Lover’ and started sending me pictures with my face photo-shopped all over them—my favorite is one with me as Walter White with the title ‘Breaking Bub.’ That’s exactly the kind of stuff my brothers used to do when I was a student here.”
Bub summed up his overall experience as “Outstanding. Even though many of my colleagues are my former teachers, they’ve never once talked down to me, and I’ve felt so welcome ever since I started here. And I’ve loved getting to work with the students here. I’ve gotten to know a lot of sophomores and juniors from the social studies classes I teach, and I’ve always grown close to many of the seniors after attending one of the Kairos retreats a few weeks ago. A lot of my friends who’ve started working after college aren’t particularly enamored of the jobs that they do, so I think I was beyond lucky to find such a challenging and awesome job immediately after graduating.”
Andrew Katz, a 2005 graduate and physics teacher, may seem a little too familiar to be considered new. Mr. Katz actually started here last year, but he will complete his first full year teaching at Jesuit this year: “I started in October of 2013, because Steve Rowley who was teaching physics…was having some hip issues. So Mr. Donahue had called me in to see if I could maybe shadow him and take over in the spring semester. But, because of some health complications, I ended up just taking over full time earlier. So even though I’m not a new teacher, this will be my first full year.” He explained that his expectations coming in as a teacher “were very based off of my time as a student. I knew it would be very busy and an adjustment, especially since I had to work on lesson planning and that sort of thing, but aside from that, I just expected it to be pretty fun.”
The old adage of “some things never change” seems applicable towards the culture of Jesuit students. When asked about what has stayed consistent with his time at Jesuit, Mr. Katz replied, “[What’s] stayed the same the most is kind of the culture of the students, a lot of the same jokes, and the way everyone relates to each other, that’s kind of the same. I don’t think that really changed.” On what’s been different, he focused more on the educational aspect of the school: “iPads, that’s different, the way students take notes and the way things happen in the classroom is different. I also think student expectations are a little different nowadays.”
A different perspective comes from Lisa Druebert, who teaches both Latin and World History. When asked about her path to teaching at Jesuit, Ms. Druebert, a Dallas native, responded, “Being from Dallas, I’ve just known about Jesuit forever, so when I found a Latin opening I was really excited to apply, and it’s been a great opportunity.” She touched on her expectations coming into the position, saying, “I knew that it’d be really challenging, and I knew that the boys would be very bright. But also, I’ve just been amazed at how nice the other faculty and staff are.” She agreed that the rest of the teachers and staff were extremely welcoming. she felt that the most surprising part of teaching at Jesuit has been the learning ability of her students: “Honestly, it’s what the boys are capable of, how much material they’re capable of mastering so quickly.”
On her experience so far, Ms. Druebert feels that “it’s been really positive. I feel like I’ve met some really great people who are amazing at what they do, and just like I said, everyone’s been awesome and willing to help with anything. Whether it’s a student or faculty person, everyone’s been really welcoming, and not everywhere is like that. Even places that are really nice don’t always try to have that atmosphere.”
When asked on her opinion of the first semester, Ms. Druebert divulged, “I’m glad to get my very first semester at Jesuit over with, because there’s so much to learn and figure out, so I feel it’s nice that we had this break as long as we did. Because now, I think I have more of a feel for just how things work, and I feel like it’s just going to get better every day that goes by. I’m just kind of hitting a rhythm.” She closed with with some reflections on her new environment: “I’m just really happy to be here. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to work with some really amazing teachers here. The caliber of the teaching here is really amazing. Do you guys notice that as students? It’s not like other places are bad, it’s just different. You guys really get the chance to exercise a level of maturity that doesn’t really happen everywhere else, like coming into a teacher’s office is something you’d do in college, go into a professor’s office. It’s not just encouraged here, it’s expected, so it gives you the opportunity to learn how to do that, and be much more poised and comfortable with adults. That doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a big deal, and a huge part of whatever kind of job you have, being able to talk to a boss, or a peer, and a lot of people don’t know how to do that. It’s a total different asset of preparation for adulthood that’s really important.”
Congrats to these new faculty members on a great first semester. The Jesuit community wishes you all the best in the next one.
