By Catherine Montoya-Quiroz
Fresh out of college, social studies teacher Mr O’ Connor pursued becoming a professional soccer player, however, as things turned out, Mr O’Connor’s soccer career actually helped kickstart his career as a teacher.
Although graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in political science, Mr O’Connor decided to follow his dreams of becoming a professional soccer player by moving to San Diego. There he played for the San Diego Earthquakes (formerly known as San Diego Flash), a second division professional soccer team. Unfortunately the job did not pay well and Mr O’Connor had to find a second job that both paid well and had flexible hours in order for him to go train with his professional soccer team.
When looking for jobs that met both of the criteria he was looking for, Mr O’Connor had the opportunity to be a substitute teacher in San Diego. This was his first time in the role of an educator. After this exposure to teaching, Mr O’Connor realized that he liked education, which led to him obtaining 2 teaching credentials that would enable him to teach special education as well as social studies.
After receiving his teaching credentials, Mr. O’Connor was told by his sister, Heather O Connor, that there was a job opening in the school where she taught. At that point, Ms. O’Connor had been a teacher at Galileo for 20 years. Mr O’Connor decided to move back to the Bay Area, since he grew up in Tiburon, in Marin county, and taught special education at Galileo. He left Galileo to teach in Marin, before moving back to Galileo in 1991 to teach social studies.
At Galileo, Mr O’Connor still had the opportunity to interact with the sport he liked as he was the soccer coach for 6 years. Mr O’Connor states that “It was very fun coaching, but it also was a lot of work”. Now Mr O’Connor only teaches and does not coach any teams.
When asked what he learned during his time as a teacher, Mr O’Connor states “I learned how to gather ideas for lesson plans. I’ve learned that I need to choose interesting ideas for my students as well as myself because most of the time, students don;t realize that what they are learning will be important down the road. So I try to choose something that students will be interested in”.
Learning from his time as a teacher, Mr O’Connor has some advice he’d give to himself. He says, “I’d take more risks with different types of lesson plans like simulations and that it’s okay if they don’t work out. As I get older now, I am trying different types of learning lesson plans like working in groups, simulations, utilizing more technology. I would definitely tell my younger self to take more risks with different types of lesson plans and it’s okay if it does not work out.
In terms of passing on advice to other teachers, Mr. O’Connor says, “teaching is rewarding, but you need to be someone who is willing to work hard, think of community, think of importance of student growth and learning and not value so much what you make and are paid. It is a lot of work, but you don’t always see it rewarded in terms of money but in student learning and student growth.”
