FHS grads return to teach

On August 20, when school started at Fallbrook Union High School, three former students came back to stay. Darcy Calas, Adriana Lopez and Richard Parris joined an elite group of 15 Fallbrook High graduates who returned to teach where they were inspired to become teachers. Exceptional educators drew Calas, Lopez and Parris home. Here are their stories.

Darcy Calas

American Sign Language

Darcy Calas graduated from Fallbrook High in 2002, and this year begins her teaching career as the school’s second-ever American Sign Language (ASL) instructor, joining her former instructor, Sharon Griener.

“I loved learning from Sharon Griener,” said Calas. “She was my inspirational teacher.”

Looking like a student herself, Calas keeps her class at rapt attention as she demonstrates with flying hands and facial expressions the imaginative world of sign language. During a conversation exercise, students imitate her precise movements in a dialogue only the non-hearing world can understand.

Calas watches for subtle errors in their movement, correcting students as they “speak.” When students “say” something funny, without thinking they “unlock” their voices and laugh out loud, then shake their hands over their heads to silently applaud the speakers.

As the class progresses, Calas explains the difference in grammar between ASL and audibly spoken English and the accents that make ASL unique.

It’s clear Calas is passionate about ASL and credits Griener for directing her career. Beginning as a freshman, she went from ASL 1 through 4 with Griener. After graduation, she attended Fresno State for her BA and trained to be an American Sign Language interpreter.

Calas never wanted to teach, but last year, while interpreting for two students through seven classes at Fallbrook High, she changed her mind. “I decided I liked what teachers do. I liked watching them in the classroom,” she explains.

Motivation figured into her decision, too: “I knew that Fallbrook needed a second sign language teacher because the program was growing.” Classes of 45 students were not unusual.

Becoming a teacher also allows her to work with Griener.

Calas says class enrollment is increasing for various reasons. Initially she believes kids take it so they can sign with their friends across campus without using their voices, but careers in ASL abound in the academic, business, political and entertainment worlds.

Calas now has 40 students in one class and 32 in another. When not teaching, she interprets for students during other periods in the day. She has a special permit to instruct while working for her teaching credential at California State University, San Marcos.

Adriana Lopez

College Prep World History

Adriana Lopez turned her love of history into a career. As a first-year teacher, she is passing that interest on to four classes of College Prep World History, including one comprised of AVID students.

From the time she was 16, Lopez knew she wanted to be a teacher but didn’t know the process. An English learner at the time, she remembers the feeling of isolation.

In her sophomore year all that changed. “Barbara Kalisuch in the AVID program discovered me and invited me into the program,” says Lopez. “She stuck up for me and taught me I could go to college.”

“I wanted to teach history from the beginning but didn’t know what level,” she adds, then credits Kalisuch and teacher John Coleman for pointing her toward teaching in high school.

Even before she graduated in 1994, Lopez wanted to teach at Fallbrook High because of the education and inspiration she received there. While studying in Italy for a year, Lopez spent her leisure time in museums collecting literature for her classroom at Fallbrook because, she says, “I always envisioned teaching at Fallbrook.”

That vision motivated Lopez to continue. Along the way, she weathered a few “bumps,” as she calls them, but when she thought of giving up during a particularly rough time, correspondence with Kalisuch pulled her through.

Every day, Lopez faces more than 30 Hispanic sophomore students in her AVID College Prep World History class and follows that with three other groups of sophomores from the general population.

The difference between students in the AVID class and the one that follows is marked. As Lopez continues to instill classroom behavior, what’s expected for completion of the course, grade points and homework assignments, she’s begun the hard task of teaching kids about the origins of democracy.

On Tuesday of week three, two students in the AVID class haven’t done their homework. In the “regular” class, however, one-third of the students failed to do it.

During class, students are directed to break into eight groups, then move around the room stopping at various stations to read information about the subject written on colorful paper. It’s a collaborative learning technique, Lopez explains. All of the AVID students understand what is expected and, with little chatter, follow the instructions while reading and writing industriously.

In the next class, though Lopez’s direction is identical, the dynamic is different. Students don’t seem to understand what they should do. Some ask other students. A girl questions Lopez, who patiently explains.

One student stares into space; another seems to have difficulty with Lopez herself. “I don’t think she respects my authority because I’m a Latina,” Lopez confides.

The slight is brushed off with a smile. “The standards are higher now,” Lopez explains in defense of students who haven’t yet figured out that she means business.

Regardless, Lopez forges ahead with enthusiasm and diligence, hoping all of her students will learn the importance of world history and its influence on their lives.

Richard Parris

English, Track and Field

Richard Parris returns to assist his former track and field coach, Marty Hauck, the man who inspired him to become a teacher. Parris will take over Hauck’s program when he retires.

If that looks easy, it’s the only thing in his life that has been so far. Parris jokes, “By my sophomore year, the teachers were taking bets I wouldn’t make it.”

He then lists the teachers responsible for his success and eventual graduation in 1987. “Marty Hauck, Tim Oder, Mr. Burns, Mr. Raymond, Marc Steffler, Mr. Fleming – they never gave up on me.” Because of them, Parris says, he started to believe in himself.

After graduation, Parris went on to college, taught eighth grade English for a while, then moved to Madera High School in Madera, CA, where he taught for seven years. During that time, he took the school’s track and field program to the CIF championships, winning it five times in seven years.

All that time, Parris kept in touch with Hauck. “I ran on Coach Hauck’s first cross country team,” he remembers with a smile.

Parris has family here, so when he had the opportunity to come back and be near them, especially his mother, he took it. “It’s wonderful to be part of a special place – Fallbrook. There’s nothing like it,” he says.

Parris isn’t only a coach, though; he’s an English teacher with two different courses that fill his day. He teaches Reading 180, a course he describes as being “for students who struggle with reading.”

These kids come from homes where no one reads, contends Parris – no books, magazines, newspapers. He then cites research that faults the Internet for the theory that very few people will be able to read in the near future.

Students in Reading 180 linger after the bell rings to make sure they have their assignments correct. They are eager to learn.

Parris also teaches Senior Composition/Practical English. The word “practical” means students learn how to fill out job applications, write résumés, read for business or pleasure and overall strengthen their basic communication skills.

“We also work on grammar and writing needed for college-level English classes,” says Parris, adding that the class is a California standards program.

Sometime in the future, Parris would like to be an athletic director, but for now he says he’s glad to be home. “This is my way of giving back to Coach Hauck,” he states. “I get the privilege of taking over his program and I plan on staying here for a very long time.”