New Employee Profile: Celeste Rodriguez

Family: I have three little sisters — Sienna, Soleil and Summer. My mom, Lourdes Crawford, is the learning director at Hughson High School and my father, Lane Crawford, is a chiropractor in Turlock, he runs his own business, Crawford Chiropractic. I recently got married so there is an addition to our family: my husband Rene. He works independently coding and creating websites for businesses.

School: Denair Middle School

Subject taught: I teach sixth- and seventh-grade English along with the yearbook class.

Experience and education: I started off my education at Modesto Junior College. There I received my associate degrees in sociology and Spanish. I continued my education through CSU Stanislaus and received my bachelors in Spanish. I also have passed the CSET in English and am currently interning through the credential program at Stanislaus. Along with this, I will be receiving the BCLAD when graduating from the credential program.

What attracted you to Denair? Denair’s community is one of the best. Everyone is so close and caring. They really treat you like family here.

What most inspires you about teaching? I’ve known all throughout high school that I wanted to be a teacher because I like helping others. The idea of being able to help my students makes me happy and that’s why I chose teaching as my career.

What is a challenge you look forward to tackling this year? A challenge I look forward to tackling this year is handling everything that comes with teaching. It is my first year as a teacher so everything is new for me. However, I am confident that this year will be great and I’m very excited to start the school year!

What is your favorite teaching tool or activity? My favorite activities as a teacher are escape rooms. It’s fun seeing students be so hands-on with assignments and working together as a group. It gives them a better understanding of the novel in a fun way and brings everyone closer!

What do you want your students to remember? I want my students to remember that their middle school experience was filled with good memories and happy thoughts. I hope they remember that their teachers cared about them and always had their support.

How can parents support what you do? Parents can support me by coming to me with any questions or concerns. No matter how little it may seem, I want parents to know that they can communicate with me and I am someone that they can reach out to.

What would surprise people about your job? Something that surprises people about my job is how beneficial it has been to be bilingual. Not many people know I am bilingual, but this really helps with communication with parents and students. Speaking both English and Spanish has made it easier for me to feel closer to the community. 

What do you do for fun?  For fun I love to spend time with my family. As of right now, my little sister loves playing Mario Kart with me. My family and I will all play against each other in races and it’s always fun!

New Employee Profile: Brendan Contreras

This is one in a series of Q&A’s with employees new to Denair Unified in 2024-25.

Family: My parents, Mary Theresa and Marco Antonio; and my brothers, Scott and Anthony

School: Denair High School

Subject taught: Math 1(H) and Math 2(H)

Experience and education: I graduated from Orestimba High School in Newman and have a B.S. in computer science from CSU Stanislaus. I have been teaching for four years, though this is my first full year certificated.

What attracted you to Denair? I’ve always gravitated towards smaller areas and communities, so the jump from Newman to Denair was very mild. Also, I love the Turlock area.

What most inspires you about teaching? Seeing success in my students, both small and grand. It is forever gratifying to see something in them click or for something to finally make sense. Also, getting to know my students and see their challenges and helping them in whatever little ways I can. Getting to be a little piece of their life is just as rewarding.

What is a challenge you look forward to tackling this year? Adversity in math has always been a problem, and I think that comes a lot from mindset. People think they aren’t good at something, so then they aren’t. I want to break that mindset and show my students that they really can get good and be good at something if they stick with it and keep pushing.

What is your favorite teaching tool or activity? You will never hear me say a bad thing about Desmos. Visuals are fantastic and Desmos is all visuals.

What do you want your students to remember? Learning doesn’t start and end with school, we just give you good structure and guidance here. You learn throughout your whole life, so the best thing you can do for yourself is learn HOW to learn best while you’re here.

How can parents support what you do? Just keep them on task and make sure they’re keeping up with their notes, their homework, and any tests or quizzes coming up. Also encourage them to reach out and ask for help themselves, or to try new things.

What would surprise people about your job? How easy it is to have patience for your students. So many people have said, “I could never, I have no patience.” But when you like your job and your students, that’s way easier to do than it seems.

What do you do for fun? Video games and music. I recently beat the Shadows of the Erdtree DLC for Elden Ring, and just finished replaying Dark Souls III. I’ll probably go back to Minecraft soon since 1.21 just came out.