Many paths to teaching posts

By Emily Richmond

Sunday, Aug. 23, 2009 | 2 a.m.

More than 600 teachers have joined the Clark County School District in time for the start of the new school year Monday. They are a mix of rookies and veterans and bring with them a wide range of life experiences. Here are six of them.

Justin Materna 29, Fifth grade teacher

Edythe & Lloyd Katz Elementary School

Teaching was something I considered as a career path when I started college, but when you’re 18 it’s hard to know what to do with the rest of your life. So I graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in marketing and management and moved to Las Vegas.

But I wasn’t happy with the day-to-day of working in the hotel business at Caesars. It wasn’t satisfying or fulfilling. I had a lot of friends who were teachers and I was always envious of them.

UNLV offered an 18-month program that would let me get my teaching credential and keep working at the same time. There’s been a lot of late nights but it’s been worth it.

I was nervous that with the district’s budget cuts that I might not get hired, so I feel fortunate to have a job. I enjoyed my student-teaching experience in Clark County. I really didn’t want to go anywhere else even though I looked around just in case.

My fifth grade teacher was Mr. Ruzicka in Dubuque, Iowa. It was a great year. He was always a happy, jolly guy. His personality is something I want to incorporate into my classroom. I want my students to remember me as someone who was fair, consistent and pushed them to be the best they could be.

Beverly Oanes 27, Art specialist

Doris French Elementary School

After I got my bachelor’s degree at the University of California, Irvine, I went to work for a mortgage company. It felt like a dead-end position with no real opportunity to make a difference in a meaningful way.

What I really wanted to do was go back to school and feed my brain. There were programs for me to earn my teaching credential and master’s degree that were closer to my family in Chino Hills, Calif., but UNLV seemed like the best opportunity. I’m not ready to settle down yet. Las Vegas is far enough away from home to be an adventure, but not so far away that my mom would freak out.

I’ve always enjoyed art and considered myself a good artist, but that’s not enough. The most important thing is an understanding of classroom management. That’s something I learned when I was a long-term substitute last year at Spring Valley High School. You can know all the information there is to know about a subject, but if you can’t control the classroom through proper, effective methods, then you won’t be able to teach at all.

Linda Avendano 51, Third grade teacher

Peterson Professional Development Elementary School

I was a secretary for the Clark County Department of Air Quality and Environmental Management. I liked working, but I didn’t love my job. I home-schooled our three children — they’re 28, 30 and 32 now — from first grade all the way through high school. At the time I thought I could do a better job than the local public school.

My husband asked me what I would do if had my choice of any career. I told him I would be a teacher. He said, “Then why don’t you quit your job and go back to school?” So I did. I had to start from scratch. I earned my bachelor’s degree from UNLV in 3 1/2 years. I’m going to go back in January and get my master’s in literacy.

When I was doing my student-teaching assignment, we studied the Great Depression. The children asked if there was still anybody alive from back then. My husband works at the Natural History Museum, and he found a volunteer there who had grown up in the 1930s. She came into the class and talked to the students. She made it real for them. That’s the kind of teacher I want to be — I want them to love learning so much that they keep going, all of their lives.

Colm Moore 44, Seventh grade English teacher

Anthony Saville Middle School

I’ve taught all over the world for 15 years — Africa, London, Boston. My wife was working as a park ranger at Big Bend National Park in Texas. That’s five hours from El Paso and seven hours from San Antonio. She got a promotion to the U.S. Department of Fish & Wildlife in Clark County, so we moved here. It’s quite a transition from one of the darkest spots for stargazing in the Lower 48 to this notoriously bright venue.

I grew up in Dublin, Ireland. A school with grades 6-12 might have 600 students and that would be considered a big school in Ireland. The scale of things here in Las Vegas is just completely different. That’s going to take some getting used to.

I’m glad they didn’t just hire all experienced people, but brought in a lot of new teachers, as well. I haven’t been around this many 23- and 24-year-olds since my college days. The energy is terrific.

I think the teacher pay scale is terrific. I’m really excited about all of the opportunities for continued education and earning advanced degrees. I’m absolutely going to take advantage of all of that.

Bethany Dixon 24, Biology, marine science teacher

Las Vegas High School

My husband is stationed at Nellis Air Force Base, which is why we came to Clark County from Fort Scott, Kan. My mom is a science teacher but I sort of resisted going that route. I didn’t realize I wanted to teach until my last semester of college at Nebraska Western University.

Most recently I was working as a manager at a clothing store at Town Square in Las Vegas. All my employees were high school students. I realized how much I liked working with them and helping them. When I told my mom I was going to go back to school and earn my teaching credential, she was absolutely thrilled. She didn’t say ‘I told you so,’ but I knew she was thinking it.

I spent a year as a permanent substitute at C.P. Squires Elementary and that just convinced me that teaching was the best job in the world. You have the chance to work with the future, every day.

Mariano Olivas 35, Special education teacher

Matt Kelly Elementary School

People ask me how I could leave Hawaii, it’s so beautiful. But if you live there your whole life it gets small. There’s nothing small about Las Vegas.

I was a food services manager for Brigham Young University-Hawaii. We had students with disabilities come in for life skills classes. They had the chance to have fun and learn in a regular environment. Something so small was so huge to them, and meant so much. That gave me the interest in special education. Some people are reluctant to work with special-ed students but for me, it was a highlight of my job. That’s what made me think about changing careers.

My daughter is in the third grade at Walter Bracken Elementary School. She’s been helping me put together all my materials. That’s been fun for us, after all these years when I’ve helped her get ready for the first day of school.