By Payton Bondurant
Photo courtesy of Lisa Pasquale
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a high school teacher? Well, a teacher with 26 years of experience can answer some of your questions! To start, however, let’s look at Ms. Pasquale’s background and how she got to where she is today. Lisa Pasquale was born in a small town in Colorado called “Salida,” and later in her life she was the first to attend college in her whole family and settled at CU Boulder. Originally, she majored in Fine Arts, but later switched to Anthropology because she found it fascinating and minored in Religious Studies.
“I love to understand the worldviews, beliefs, and daily lives of people all over the world so that I can expand my own worldview and have more empathy for others.”
She was in college for 9 years to earn her master’s degree, then taught at an alternative school called “Center for Discovery Learning” for 3 years before moving to Pomona High School, where she taught and still teaches for 23 years.
Ms. Pasquale has always had a love and connection with history, and she always deep down wanted to be a teacher because of it. “I wanted to become a teacher because I love history and I want to teach my students to love history.”
“I worked at an alternative charter school for my first three years of teaching. It was amazing, but exhausting. I wanted to change to a traditional school where I would get paid more and actually have some planning time. Pomona offered me a job first, so I took it. I have stayed at Pomona for so long because I love the students here and the community.”
Lisa Pasquale also accomplished a lot over her years of teaching, which holds a memorable connection to her. She has taken students to Europe twice and on many other trips in the United States. She has a master’s degree in religious studies and is working on another one in history.
However, in any type of hard-working labor also comes its challenges that you have to overcome to succeed, and for Ms. Pasquale, she struggled with people-pleasing. Her biggest challenge as a teacher is dealing with cell phones. Being a strict disciplinarian is challenging for her. It has also been challenging now that Pomona is a combined middle and high school.
Being a teacher as long as she has definitely taught her a couple of lessons. Pasquale loves being a teacher. She points out that, “It is not for everyone, however. I believe it is a calling. You will have to have a lot of patience. It does get easier over time.”
Leave a comment