The start of the 2024 school year marked the arrival of several new teachers at Bellevue West. For some of these teachers it is not just their first time teaching at West, but teaching as a whole. As the semester approaches its end, these teachers spoke about their experience so far at Bellevue West. Business teacher Justin Lamberson was one of the new arrivals; he currently teaches computer science and personal finance.
“Everything has gone really, really well,” Lamberson said. “The team that I’m surrounded by here in the business department, the administration, the students, I couldn’t be happier with the experience that I’ve had so far.”
Lamberson also talked about how it’s taken him some time to get used to the schedules and grading, but that they haven’t gotten in the way of an overall pleasant experience. Lamberson decided to start teaching after working in healthcare for 15 years, and enjoys being able to help others.
“One of the things that I’ve enjoyed most is just getting to know the students, both the students that I have in class, but also some that I’ve gotten to know through extracurriculars, like forensics, things like that, being able to really be part of the community participate,” Lamberson said.
Lamberson also said how he feels that one of the greatest strengths of Bellevue West is its
sense of community, such as the school’s involvement in like the Arrows to Aerospace parade.
“My biggest hope is just to be able to continue and come back next year,” Lamberson said. “And also just have the opportunity to grow as a teacher, and get to kind of grow maybe some of the opportunities that I have outside of the classroom.”
English teacher Kinley Hamilton, who is a Bellevue West alumni, also began teaching at the start of the school year.
“I feel slightly better about going into the second semester, just because Bellevue has a new curriculum for English,” Hamilton said. “So not only is this my first year, but other English teachers in the building are getting caught up with the new curriculum, and I’m trying to get caught up with being in my first year of teaching and getting the new curriculum.”
Hamilton said that she wanted to become a teacher due to her love of English and her desire to help students see their potential from reading.
“We just keep pushing through, and I can help them with anything,” Hamilton said. “I think English teaches that having to critically think about your situation and make a good decision about that, which is hard for teenagers to do, because you’re a teenager and you’re experiencing life at just a different rate, but just critically thinking about what is the correct decision and the world around me.”
Hamilton said she enjoys the smaller funny moments with her students, and how it feels that each one of her classes is a team.
“My biggest hope is that I can make an impact somewhere, somehow,” Hamilton said. “Obviously, not every kid loves English. Not every kid is going to come into my English class every single day and be so happy to read another book. So what I just really hope for is that in some way, in some class period, they just take something away, they learn something.”