Meet Alumnus and AG Teacher Mrs. Hernandez

Mrs. Hernandez is one of the many new teachers at Santa Maria High School. This is her first year here and she teaches Biology and Physics of the Universe. She has also taught in Le Grand High School. Her original major was Ag Science. She went to Cal Poly for college. She is an alumnus here at SMHS.

Mrs. Hernandez had always wanted to be a teacher since she was little. She first wanted to be an elementary teacher but then she chose to be a high school teacher. She’s better able to communicate with high school students than with little kids.

She is enjoying her time here at SMHS. She really likes collaborating with her coworkers and talking with her old teachers. It feels different for Mrs. Hernandez to be back at SMHS as a teacher than a student. She tries to do her best to make her students feel like they are having a good time in her classroom.

Besides teaching, she gets involved in the school by going to her students’ games and stuff like that, but she would like to start a club of her own one day. She has ideas of like what her club would be like, and some of her ideas are crafting, a karaoke club, etc..

If Mrs. Hernandez wasn’t a teacher, she would like to be in something that has to do with service because she likes serving and helping people. She has thought about being an obstetric nurse but it wouldn’t work for her because she can’t handle blood and other things that comes with the job.

During quarantine, it was hard for her because she had just moved into her place, and she wasn’t able to see her family. She was part of the Ag department during the pandemic. She worked a lot and when things got a little better, she got to check in with the fair animals.

She has two sisters and one younger brother. She got married over in Thanksgiving break.

Mrs. Hernandez has traveled to New York, Kentucky, Tennessee, and other different places. She was in AVID in high school so she visited different colleges and traveled to other places when she was in FFA.  She hasn’t been anywhere outside of the US. Her favorite place to visit is her parents’ house because family is very important to her.

One of her favorite movies is The Proposal. She likes all kinds of music, but she doesn’t like Hip-Hop. Her favorite food is Mexican food and if she had to choose one food to be her favorite, it would be tacos. What she does for fun is hang out with her friends, karaoke, hiking, go on walks, visit her family, etc. She also enjoys being creative with activities like painting and doing crafts. She also likes to play basketball and to watch soccer.

Communication skills are very important to her because she wants her students to feel like her classroom is a safe place. She wants them to feel that they can talk to her when there is an issue going on.

The one tip she has for her students who are planning to go to college is,”…to learn time management. There is a time and place for everything. There is a time when you can have fun; there is time when you learn how to study well. Learn what works for you and make sure you make that time because if you’re planning to go to college, it is a lot more challenging, but you really have to focus and make sure if you have to work, you allow your time to have mental health days and have days where you can relax because sometimes it can be overwhelming.”

The one piece of life advice she would give is, “…to always be a good human. Don’t just do it when others are watching; learn to be a good and positive human because it matters. Your smile can change somebody’s day. I know it’s really hard with masks.  Just being a more positive person with a positive attitude makes you more enjoyable and makes it earlier because you don’t know if someone is having a bad day and your positivity can change that.”