José Echezarreta, a Spanish teacher, has been a teacher for over two decades. Even in college, he taught in some way: “My first job was teaching conversational, medical Spanish to doctors and nurses when I was nineteen years old,” Echezarreta said. “Since then, all of my jobs have been about teaching.” He was inspired by the teachers he had when he was a student. “When I was a kid, I had many teachers. […] They were nice teachers who helped their students. I liked that,” Echezarreta said. He tries his hardest to teach his students to the best of his ability and to keep his students interested in what they are learning, “I do my best to get my students to care about what we are doing,” Echezarreta said. “I put a lot of my energy and myself into my activities.” He loves Bak and its students, “I am very fortunate to be at this school,” Echezarreta said. “The students here at this school, are eager to learn.”
George Ryan, a Physical Education teacher, has worked at Bak for many years. “I’ve been here for 27 years now. Had I gone to any other school, I probably would have been gone in less than 5. It’s the school that has kept me in teaching because it’s that good of a school,” Ryan said. He didn’t start as a Physical Education teacher, however. He has done many different jobs. “My very first job was when I was 13, I worked at a car wash. […] I’ve worked in a video rental store, I’ve worked in a toy store, I worked at summer camps in the off-season during college,” Ryan said. He doesn’t have much time outside of teaching to do hobbies, however, “It leaves me very little time,” Ryan said. “I guess my main thing is going to the gym. I’ve been trying to get into pickleball, but I haven’t had much luck finding the time.” He loves Bak, one of the reasons being “it’s much better than sitting in a cubicle coming up with TPS reports.”
Last year, the Portfolio did a Teacher Feature on Christine Amico available on portfolionews.org, but she was so popular, that students wanted to bring her back. Amico began teaching at her local dance studio and helped dancers understand how to perform activities. “At 14 years old, I started teaching at my dance studio, and I always had a knack for explaining things,” Amico said. She always tries to change her curriculum so there’s always something different every year. Amico said, “Every year, I do something different. […] If I did the same thing year after year, over and over, I would be completely bored. So I always try to find something new to add into my teaching […] just so that it stays fresh for me and it stays fresh for my students.” She knows what it’s like to have to do a lot of different things and is flexible for her students, “I’m very familiar with your schedules because I know a lot of you have practice after school or stuff like that. This is why I don’t assign a lot of homework to be done that night or the next day.” She loves teaching at Bak and loves the students. Amico said, “The kids here at Bak make my job easy, and I’m blessed to be their teacher.”
