Every year, we’ve said goodbye to the old teachers and said hello to the new ones. Since Monarch High School opened in 1999, the school has had teachers come and go, some staying, while others have pursued new lives or welcomed retirement. This year Monarch welcomed several new teachers as well as a new counselor, who are all working with their new students and their new departments. These are a few of the new teachers around the school this year.

A new face in the World Language department is Spanish teacher Emily Mozingo.  Mozingo’s way of teaching is very dynamic and personalized for the students in her class. Through having taught at several schools she has learned new and engaging ways to present content. “I do a survey at the start of the year to get a feel for how my students learn best,” Mozingo said. She feels a strong connection with not only with her new students, but with her new coworkers as well.

Her experience at Monarch has been well received, with feelings of love, support and kindness; not just from the other teachers, but from the students as well. Mozingo draws her inspiration from several years ago, she wanted to be a teacher; connecting with her teachers and feeling the joy of learning that she hopes to bring to her students in her time here at Monarch.

Another new face is not a teacher, but new counselor Tom Hacker. Hacker was a teacher from 1992 to 2006, then switched to counseling in 2006 to present day. As a Peace Corps volunteer, he taught science in Fiji. From teaching in Peace Corps he learned he liked to help students who needed a little push. Hacker then went to college and earned his Special Education certificate. After teaching Special Education in California, he moved to Colorado and decided it was time for a change and went back to school to get his counseling certificate. His experience of Monarch, like Mozingo’s, was a warm and supportive welcome. “My kids both currently go to Monarch High School. I coach youth football and youth wrestling. I really enjoy the students, the parents, and the community as whole,” Hacker said.

Tucked in the back of B Hall is the work space of the new Technical and Career Education and Applied Technology teacher Shane Stalter, picking up the program that the recently retired David Clark built when the school first opened. He started his teaching career as a student teacher in 1999 at Monarch High, the first year the school opened, as well as at Monarch PK-8 next door. He’s been teaching for 16 years at schools ranging from Eldorado K-8, Louisville Middle School, and Stanley Lake High School. Stalter wanted to be a teacher when he was a kid, and even though his parents had warned him to not teach, his love for workshops, showing kids how to use tools, and teaching the students how to solve problems won out in the end. “Growing up rural Ohio, guys on the farm had to fix stuff, you couldn’t just go to the store and buy a part or hire someone; you had to be hands on at a young age,” Stalter said. His impression of Monarch so far is “Almost like a college campus,” Stalter said. “The kids are pushing me to learn as well.”

There was previously no Talented and Gifted (TAG) Program for the students at Monarch, until Rupali Hofmann, the Talented and Gifted Specialist, was brought on board. “Dr. Anderson invited me to come and find creative ways to support [gifted students] academically as well as socially,” Hofmann said. In addition Hoffman works with students to help recognize some struggles they might not be aware of. She has been supporting TAG for three years looking for gifted students who have potential but lack the tools to access their full potential. TAG is not an elitist program like many people think, and Hoffman made it clear that she provides tools to help all TAG students that can use a little help, not necessarily academically, but with their pacing or the students desire for a perfect paper often getting in the way of their own work, like writing a paper or learning how to work with a partner. Ranging from freshmen to seniors in her TAG group, Hoffman said, “It’s a village, I see kids that are free to be themselves.”

Teaching is not a lost art, with a fresh set of teachers arriving at school. Adding a whole new set of variety to the staff and to the new students, they are receiving a warm welcome and  as well as form their own dynamic lesson plans with help of their new coworkers. The teachers are able to fall right into the MoHi family and learning not only from their fellow teachers, but from their students as well.