There are many new teachers that have joined the staff for the 2022-2023 school year at Bellevue East High School.

In the previous issue, it  was focused on Sarah Strawn, Robert Cote, and Cherie Oraivej. In this issue, the spotlight is on Bryan Irsik, Jessica Park, and Patrick Hilderbrand. All of our new teachers teach different subjects but all have one thing in common.  Which it is all their first year teaching at Bellevue East.

“I enjoy working with high school students. Being able to support them in the classroom and watch as they learn, grow, and continue on after high school, is extremely rewarding,” Hilderbrand said.

Many kinds of jobs are available today. Ranging from dentists to game designers. Out of all the jobs the teachers could choose from but they choose to be a teacher.

“I actually wasn’t sure that I wanted to work back in a school. While in graduate school, I was determined that I would work with acute care patients in a medical setting,” Hilderbrand said. “However, after I did my school internship with Omaha Public Schools, I knew that I wanted to work in a school setting.”

Teaching was not the only career that was on one of the teachers list of potential jobs. For one teacher,  being a veterinarian was a possible career path.

“I did want to be a vet at one time but till they told me I had to tell animals I had to put them down then I wasn’t,” Park said.

There are many schools here in the Bellevue and Omaha area to choose from to teach at. There can be many reasons that teachers choose to teach at Bellevue East. Maybe be close to home or know students and staff that work at Bellevue East.

“I was coaching football here and I was coaching wrestling,” Irsik said. [I] started to enjoy the kids who I was working with and when the opportunity came up, I jumped on it.”

Students are not the only people learning at school, but also teachers. They have to learn what works best for students.

“I’ve learned that even though they can give you all the training in the world there’s no set way to work with kids,” Irsik said. “ You have to adapt and what works one year may not work next year. Got to be willing to adjust,”

When it comes to jobs, do what you love. The environment can help many workers enjoy working. The same goes for schools for teachers.

“Working at Bellevue East has been an easy transition from my previous school district,” Hilderbrand said. “The general and special education teachers that I work with have an open line of communication and all want to see their students perform well.”