This is one in a series of Q&A’s with employees new to Denair Unified in 2023-24.
Family: I come from a family of three, and have two dogs
School: District office
Subject taught: Speech language pathology
Experience and education: I have a bachelor’s degree from San Diego State University and am currently enrolled in a master’s program at West Coast University.
What attracted you to Denair? Initially, coming from a small town myself is what attracted me to Denair; however, the amazing team and students I work with has kept me here!
What most inspires you about teaching? Watching little minds grow, create, and build on their strengths/challenges.
What is a challenge you look forward to tackling this year? Taking on my new role as a SLP and
challenging myself.
What is your favorite teaching tool or activity? Play-based therapy, as it builds on a variety of different communication skills as a whole.
What do you want your students to remember? That they can do anything they set their minds to and that nothing is ever too hard!
How can parents support what you do? Keeping in contact with me to build and provide the best services possible.
What would surprise people about your job? The paperwork.
What do you do for fun? I enjoy hiking, camping and spending time with loved ones.
This is one in a series of Q&A’s with employees new to Denair Unified in 2023-24.
Family: Three brothers (I am the only girl).
School: DECA
Subject taught: Kindergarten Dual Language Immersion
Experience and education: Graduated From Stanislaus State.
What attracted you to Denair? The culture and small community of Denair. Working here feels like you are working with your family. It is one big support system.
What most inspires you about teaching? Seeing the children grow in all aspects. Being in kinder, you get to see it all. Students come in with little to no skills; at the end of the school year, they are expert mathematicians, readers, scientists, historians, thinkers and much more!
What is a challenge you look forward to tackling this year? The challenge I look forward to tackling this year is having all my students speaking fluent Spanish by the end of the year.
What is your favorite teaching tool or activity? My favorite is my behavior clip chart, which tracks children’s behavior by moving each child’s name up or down the chart throughout the day.
What do you want your students to remember? I want my students to remember that it is OK to struggle at first, but with hard work and dedication, they will exceed.
How can parents support what you do? Being part of the Dual Language Immersion program, parental support is greatly appreciated and helps translate to their child any reinforcement that is needed. Working as a team, parents and teachers need to collaborate to ensure their child is better equipped for academic success.
What would surprise people about your job? You know you belong at your job when it warms your heart to arrive at your job and see so many different smiles that can lighten your day.
What do you do for fun? For fun, I like traveling and going to the beach.
There is no avoiding the obvious when it comes to the Denair High varsity football team. In a sport that requires 11 players at a time on offense, defense or special teams, Denair has 14 players on its roster. Total. Ninth-year head coach Anthony Armas has more assistant coaches next to him on the sideline than extra players.
It’s far from what any team would wish for, but it’s a familiar spot for the Coyotes. In 2016, they began with 16 healthy players, but finished a couple of games with just 12 because of injuries.
“We’ve done it before. It’s not ideal, but this is what we’ve got,” acknowledged Armas, whose team will begin its 2023 season Saturday night at home against Big Valley Christian of Modesto. Kickoff is at 7:15 p.m. at Jack Lytton Stadium.
Armas attributes the low numbers this season, in part, to the lingering effects of COVID. The members of this year’s senior class were freshmen when the pandemic struck. Many of them did not play football then and never took up the sport after the restrictions were lifted. Armas thinks that explains why there are only two seniors – Landon Borges and Jonathan Coronel – on this year’s roster. They are joined by 10 juniors and two sophomores.
“Our junior class is about normal, but this senior group hurt us,” Armas acknowledged. “After this, our numbers will be fine. Our lower levels are good, probably the best we’ve ever had.”
The junior varsity roster includes 35 freshmen and sophomores, backing up Armas’ confidence about the future.
But other than assuring the varsity get reps in at joint practices, all those younger bodies won’t help Denair this year.
“We have some talented kids, but no depth across the board. If anyone goes down, it’ll be tough,” admitted Armas, who doesn’t try to sugarcoat the obvious to his players. “We keep telling them, ‘The calvary’s not coming. This is it.’ ”
Obviously, with the low numbers, every Denair player is expected to go both ways. Many of the players never come off the field during the game.
Borges, the quarterback, also plays safety. Junior center Eduardo Zacarias also is a defensive lineman. Junior Jesse Ruelas will start at fullback and outside linebacker. Sophomore Even Coronel will be on the offensive line and also play linebacker. Sophomore Ernesto Silva plays tight end and defensive line.
Armas said such a small roster influences how he coaches during the game.
“Sometimes, I’ll call timeout just to give them a break,” he said of his players. “I tell them to let me know if they’re cramping up.”
Armas appreciates the attitude the players have, despite the thin roster.
“It would be real easy with the numbers to fold up and shut down, to feel sorry for themselves,” he said. “They take it as a challenge. Especially this junior class. They’re very tight. Still, you have to kind of hope we get a little lucky. That’s every year with football. You hope you don’t get bitten by the injury bug.”
The season opener this week was moved to Saturday because of a field trip Big Valley is taking Friday. What that sets up is a full day of football on Saturday between the Denair and Big Valley programs – from the youth level all the way through the varsity. The youngest kids start at 9 a.m., with other games to follow at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m., the JVs at 5 p.m. and the varsity at 7:15 p.m.
After Big Valley, the Coyotes will have a week off before traveling to Riverbank on Sept. 1. They were supposed to host Bret Harte of Angels Camp on Sept. 8 for varsity and JV games, but because Bret Harte doesn’t have a varsity team this year, the freshmen, sophomores and juniors from each school will meet in what will be considered a JV game.
Denair begins its Southern League schedule on Sept. 15 at home against Ripon Christian.
Last year, the Coyotes finished 2-8 overall and 1-6 in league play – the lone SL victory coming in the final game of the season at Waterford.
Armas said it’s hard to set firm goals, given the size of the roster and what could happen if too many players get hurt.
“It’s really week to week,” he explained. “Our goal this week being the first game is to execute, minimize mistakes, minimize penalties and turnovers, make sure we get lined up right. We could say we want to make the playoffs, but that’s putting the cart ahead of the horse. We just need to stabilize things for now. If we get to the final weeks of the season and the playoffs are within reach, we can adjust then.”
This is one in a series of Q&A’s with employees new to Denair Unified in 2023-24.
Family: I have an older brother and older sister
School: Denair High School
Subject taught: Science
Experience and education: This is my first year of teaching. I earned my degree in animal science. While I was in school, I worked in a veterinary clinic to expand my knowledge in both the science and veterinary fields.
What attracted you to Denair? I had a couple friends in high school who transferred to Denair and always said how great their experience was.
What most inspires you about teaching? What most inspires me about teaching is when I see a student’s “light bulb” go off once they understand a topic.
What is a challenge you look forward to tackling this year? I look forward to taking on my first year of teaching and tackling all the ups and downs that come with it.
What is your favorite teaching tool or activity? I am not sure what my favorite teaching tool or activity will be exactly, but I hope Kahoot is somewhere at the top of the list, because that helped me a lot while in school.
What do you want your students to remember? I want my students to always remember, it is OK to not understand a topic right away. It might take days or weeks, but eventually it will click and everyone clicks at different times. So, they should not compare themselves to anyone else.
How can parents support what you do? Parents can support me by keeping an open line of communication with me. If they have questions, I do not want them to hesitate to ask. I will do my best to ensure that all students have a good year learning a difficult subject.
What would surprise people about your job? I think people would be surprised to know that I used to really dislike the subject that I am teaching, because it was difficult for me to understand. Eventually, I took a different approach and thought to myself it is a difficult subject, but I am passing it and if I can pass this class I can pass the next and so on.
What do you do for fun? I coach youth cheer for fun in my spare time.
This is one in a series of Q&A’s with employees new to Denair Unified in 2023-24.
Family: Husband, Wesley, and two dogs, Sasha and Bo
School: Denair High School
Subject taught: Ag biology; ag soil science; floral 1, 2, and 3; farm to fork
Experience and education: Previously taught agriculture at Delta Charter High School in Tracy for the 2022-23 school year. Worked as a 911 dispatcher for about eight years while I went to school to become a teacher. Graduated from CSU Fresno with a BS in agriculture education and an animal science emphasis.
What attracted you to Denair? I grew up in the Central Valley and Denair has a strong sense of community and family. When I felt that, I knew this was where I wanted to be.
What most inspires you about teaching? Seeing a student’s growth from the beginning of the year to the end of the year as well as those “aha” moments when you can tell a student “gets it” when they make a connection in a lesson.
What is a challenge you look forward to tackling this year? A challenge I am looking forward to tackling this year is implementing the four-point grading system and more project-based learning.
What is your favorite teaching tool or activity? My favorite teaching tool is using interactive notebooks to house all notes and student work in one location to create a learning resource and organizational tool for students.
What do you want your students to remember? I want students to remember that their goals are achievable and there is not one set path to take to reach those goals.
How can parents support what you do? Parents can support what I do by communicating and working together as a team to best support their students in achieving their goals and making sure their students have the support they need to be successful.
What would surprise people about your job? The amount of outside hours, effort and true passion that goes into being an agriculture teacher and FFA advisor.
What do you do for fun? I enjoy spending time with my family, traveling to Disneyland whenever possible, concerts and working on remodeling my house.
