Robla Elementary School District

Transcription

♫ ♫ I'm Tim Herrera with the Sacramento County Office of Education here with another Teachers of the Year profile. We have with us now Ben Torrecampo who is Teacher of the Year for the Robla School District. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. Tell us a little about yourself first, Ben. Tell us about where you teach and what you teach. Okay. I've taught at Robla School for nine years and I teach fifth grade multiple subjects. Robla School has more than four hundred diverse students and my class, I have thirty of my own students in addition to eight students that I adopted from a combination class and one from a special day class. So I have thirty nine students. It was -- I thought it would be challenging, but it turned out to be -- it ran very smooth and I enjoy teaching fifth grade because of the emphasis on the science. Well tell me about the additional students that you said you did adopt. Why did you do that? What was the reason there? Just to help out that the combination class so that they would be exposed to all the science because, again, fifth grade has that emphasis on the science. It's an extra STAR test they have to take it, that's the year for the STAR test. And so if I can get everyone together instead of having to teach it twice, I thought it would be more beneficial for the students. And what have you found out? It's just amazing -- amazing results because the students wanted to work. The students wanted to be there. and %uh they produced excellent results because of their motivation work. Now how many years have you taught at Robla? Eight years as a regular teacher, fourth and fifth grade and %uh my first year I was a substitute there. Okay, so you've been in the community for a while so, what's it like working in a small school community where you've got siblings coming up and you get to know the families really well? It's -- it's welcoming. The parents come they always drop by they tell me -- give me stories about how they used to go to school there and attend there and their grandparents so it's an old school that dates back in the early nineteen hundreds. It's -- it's fun, it's a lot of fun. so in that type of environment you get to establish some really good relationships with the students' families how important is that for a teacher to have those kinds of really strong relationships? Oh, that -- that is absolutely key to one of successes in reaching out to the families. If you know the families, the students tend to work a lot harder. The students they want to be there and they know with just a simple phone call %uh if they start to slide in their grades or the behavior, then you know that you're going to make that call and it just makes your life a lot easier when you have that connection with the family. And when you have to make that call it's difficult, but it's something that a teacher has to do. That's right it's difficult but at the same time, it can improve their grades in the future and makes your classroom run so much easier in the future, also. So what are some of the specific challenges that you're facing these days as a teacher? That's what I love about being a teacher is all the challenges and I think %uh motivating them is is a difficult task but at the same time it gets to be -- it's fun. You get to find innovative ways to motivate the students, to make them want to work, to make them want to succeed and so we always practice the three Ds of success, which is the desire if they have the desire to do something, accomplish a goal, get 100% on a test, they want to be a doctor, an engineer, that's half the battle right there is having that desire, the dedication or excuse me, discipline, doing it whether they're tired -- at a lot of the kids come to school tired. But they find the discipline to work and they continue to work and dedication, sticking with it, and never giving up. I always give an example of my wife. She -- it took her nine years to graduate from college, but she never gave up raising three kids and working full time, so they look at the examples that are provided them and if you sell it to 'em and they really believe that you believe it, they they will %uh you will have positive outcomes. I've had a lot of great results from that. What about those students who are particularly difficult to motivate? What kind of special things do you have to do for them? %uh Just instilling that discipline, and that's where the discipline kicks in. You've gotta make sure that %uh that they work and when you give them that confidence that they are improving and when you work with them before school, after school, even during lunch, you give them that confidence and when they start to raise their scores -- their test scores or assignments, then they start to work for you. And then, before you know it, they're -- they're just like everybody else scoring 80, 90% on the tests and it's been very successful. So, it's the -- you have thirty nine students and thirty nine personalities thirty nine different individual motivation plans, basically? Overall, I do the general %uh but the hard work, the discipline, you've got to stick with it no matter what. But I don't have a lot of I know I talk a lot about work, but, we do work work work, but at the same time they have a lot of incentives and I we have fun, educational field trips. For example, the Exploratorium. The kids raise their own money for that, I do skating, we have a lot of parties, and so we work hard to have fun. And when the students earn it, then they -- they feel more valued and they get responsibility and %uh and the outcome is just amazing. So how does it impact the student when they know from you that you have really high expectations? When -- whenever anyone scores a eighty percent or higher on a test, they see their name on the board, they all -- they all want to be on the bandwagon and get a hundred percent, or at least ninety percent, or eighty percent, and so they just -- they work extremely hard and it's expected. When you walk into my class, you you're going to score eighty percent or higher. You're going to be proficient or advanced. And I take nothing nothing lower than that. And so, but as long as they're improving, I might even accept that also. I'm looking for growth. That's the most important. And effort. And effort. Exactly. Thank you. So, in the amount of time that you've been a teacher, how have you seen things change for you in the classroom, as far as the demands on you, and the extra things that you might have to do to get your students to perform well? There's been changes throughout the years. One positive change I can look at is the curriculum. I had a student come in a couple years ago. Two, three years ago. And I asked him what can I do to improve my teaching or how can I prepare you for the middle school years. And he said in algebra, I wish I had more practice with expressions and a year later I saw an opportunity to pilot our new math and vision program and that was my answer. Our curriculum is just improving. Dramatically. And it's -- it's had great success. And with new curriculum comes the part where the teacher has to kind of bone up and study as well. Exactly. Exactly. There's and especially with the new vision, you have to prepare more for the technology aspects of it. And so, it's more time-consuming, but it benefits you and the class overall. So how did you become a teacher? What brought you to this? That's an excellent question. That's a tough one to answer. I never wanted to be a teacher. Really? Never wanted to be a teacher. I was in the military and I thought that was going to be my career forever. Did very well, but I was deployed many times and so I had to find an alternative career that was suitable for family life and I looked back at my strengths and my wife said why don't you try education 'cause you love teaching that's what I liked to do. I trained and I enjoyed teaching and so she -- I started substituting at Robla School and the kids were just welcoming and I wanted them to succeed even if I was just there for one hour or just for that one day I wanted them to do well. So every lesson was important to me and I think by the end of that year of substituting I've got -- I was able to do a long-term substitution that -- for a difficult class and the kids were very receptive and they wanted me to be there every single day and just to see their growth I think that's when I knew that I should be a teacher. And I was fortunate that I was offered a job immediately after that so it's been an incredible experience. It wasn't something that you thought about but it just kind of came to you. It just happened and one of the principal that interviewed me she said it was serendipity that it just happened. And it was. It's amazing. I'm very lucky to be in the profession. So what do you say to those folks who are considering teaching as a profession? To consider it? If you want to make an impact, you wanna make a difference, in one child or a dozen kids or hundreds of kids and make a difference in this world and just %uh just to help one student %uh brighten their day or brighten their future for the rest of their lives, this is the job to have. This is -- it's undescribable when you see kids succeed when you see them falling behind and then their grads just improve throughout the year. It's an incredible experience. It's like jumping out of an airplane. I'm sure there're some similarities, that's for sure! Well, we appreciate your time and we congratulate you on the award you've received. We've been speaking with Ben Torrecampo who is the Teacher of the Year for the Robla School District. Thanks for joining us. Well, thank you for having me.