Northgate welcomed a dozen new teachers to campus for the 2023-2024 school year, including three who have returned after previously teaching here. Sentinel staff members interviewed these busy and interesting people. Here is what they had to say.

REBECCA BENABOU – ENGLISH

Interview & photo by Ella Axelrod

1. What courses do you teach? I teach 9th and 12th grade English.

2. What is your past educational or professional experience? I went to Sacramento State for undergrad, and I majored in English. Also at Sacramento State, I did the teaching credential program for one year and got my teaching credentials in English at the secondary level and I did student teaching in Sacramento at Rosemont High for 10th and 12th grade English.

3. What made you want to be a part of the Northgate staff? Part of the reason why I wanted to become part of the Northgate staff… I grew up here in the Bay Area in San Ramon about twenty minutes away, so I am a Bay Area native and I always knew after my teaching credential program, I wanted to come back and teach in the community I grew up in and I am a really big fan of the district.

4. Describe your experience. So far, it has been amazing. I got super lucky with a really good English department and all the other English teachers who have been here to support me, as well as really supportive admin, like Principal Cooper and Vice Principals Rosecrans and Farrar. As far as my students, I think I got really spoiled my very first year here because I have amazing students who want to learn and be here and they care about their grades. So it is really nice to work with students who have as much passion in learning as I do.

6. What goals do you hope to achieve this year? This year, I just hope to achieve creating those stronger relationships with my students, so that way I am able to come up with more fun and creative lesson plans that I think are relevant to them and their time today in the 21st century.
7. What is something interesting you would like to share? I would say something interesting about me would be the fact that I graduated college a whole year early. I took double the amount of credits you should take in college in order to graduate early because I was so eager to start my teaching career that I basically had no social life so I could take double the credits to graduate early. I am super proud of myself for that!

PAULA DILLON – SOCIAL STUDIES

Interview by Sasha Perelman

1. What courses do you teach? This year I teach AP European History and US Government/Economics. But I have taught World History, US History, and Psychology over the years.

2. What is your past educational or professional experience? I worked as a sub at De La Salle and Carondelet way in the beginning of my career after I graduated college (like 2004-2005). Then I worked at Clayton Valley High School, which is also my alma mater, from 2006-2016, before coming to Northgate in fall of 2016. I took a year off last year but I think I’ll stay at Northgate. I really like it here and my kids will go to school here as well!

3. What made you want to be a part of the Northgate staff? My friends 🙂 When I came from CV, a lot of teachers had left, and most of them were my good friends. I was very lucky that a position opened up here and I was able to be hired with them! I also know that Northgate is a great school and part of a great community, so I was excited to come here.

4. Describe your experience. My friends. When I came from CV, a lot of teachers had left, and most of them were my good friends. I was very lucky that a position opened up here and I was able to be hired with them! I also know that Northgate is a great school and part of a great community, so I was excited to come here.

5. What goals do you hope to achieve this year? I hope to achieve some balance and learn some new technical skills and tools to make my classroom more fun and engaging.

6. What is something interesting you would like to share? I have a very international family and background. I have a twin sister and she lives in Ireland, so I hope to make another trip to Ireland soon. My parents are from Chile and Argentina, so I have a lot of family there and I even lived and went to school in Santiago, Chile for a while when I was a kid. I also have family in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Australia, so I hope I always have a place to crash when I visit there! I am fluent in Spanish and can understand some Italian (I used to speak more Italian but forgot a lot of it as I stopped practicing it) and am currently working to get my Italian Passport so I can have dual citizenship, because I hope to retire in Europe one day, and I want the option to send my kids to university there since it is cheaper than college here! I love to travel and want to organize another student trip soon. I’m currently thinking of organizing a trip to France to see Paris, Normandy, and the southern coast.

ANNIE LIEN – MATH

Interview by Stella Noe

1. What courses do you teach?  I teach Algebra 1 and Geometry.

2. What is your past educational or professional experience? This is my 11th year teaching: 8 years in high school and 4 years in middle school.

3. What made you want to be a part of the Northgate staff? I taught at Northgate 13 years ago and loved the students and staff and wanted to return.

4. Describe your experience so far. Amazing!  I love my students and the staff has been so welcoming, helpful, and friendly.

5. What goals do you hope to achieve this year? I hope to help my students learn a ton and help them enjoy math more.

6. What is something interesting you would like to share? In past years I have also taught World History, Logic, Watercolor, Ballet, and even helped with a Spanish class.

CLARE WEER – MATH

Interview by Naomi Martin

1. What courses do you teach? I am teaching AP Precalculus because a lot of Algebra II/Trig students asked me to do it last year. Also I have been teaching Precalculus for 17 years.

2. What is your past educational or professional experience? I’ve been teaching privately for 18 years and I taught two semesters of Genetics at Berkeley.

3. What made you want to be a part of the Northgate staff? My long term subbing last year was thoroughly enjoyable and staff and students made me feel welcome.

4. Describe your experience so far. It has been amazing, better than I could have imagined. I am so impressed with the students and their desire to learn.

5. What goals do you hope to achieve this year? It is a bit ambitious but I want 85 percent of the students to get a 4 or a 5 on the AP test.

6. What is something interesting you would like to share? In my free time I love to walk on East Coach beaches with my friend and hunt for shark’s teeth. Usually I only find a couple every hour but the last time I went I found 3 pounds of shark’s teeth.

JEN COLLIER – Social

Interview by Emily Chao

1. What courses do you teach? I teach Freshmen Leadership, Gov/Econ, Advanced Film, Intro to Film, and Yearbook.

2. What is your past educational or professional experience? I have been teaching for 27 years. My previous schools include Glenbrook Middle School, Mt. Diablo High School, El Dorado Middle School, and Ygnacio Valley High School.

3. What made you want to be a part of the Northgate staff? The thing that made me want to be a part of the NHS Staff is the sense of community here at NHS.

4. Describe your experience so far. My experience so far has been wonderful! I absolutely love it here. Everyone here has been so welcoming and I immediately felt like a part of the Bronco Family.

5. What goals do you hope to achieve this year? This year, I hope to establish myself as part of the NHS Community. I hope to build relationships with my students and the greater NHS community.

6. What is something interesting you would like to share? Something interesting: I was chosen as a House of Representatives Fellow and got to travel to Washington D.C. and spend time collaborating with teachers from around the country and I got to meet with Representative John Lewis.

ANTON MERCADO – RESOURCE SPECIALIST

Interview by Cameron Turner

1. What courses do you teach? I teach Academic Success.

   

2. What is your past educational or professional experience? I have worked in MDUSD since 2002.  Before Northgate, I taught 8th grade at Pleasant Hill Middle School.  But for the last eight years, I worked in different alternative ed high schools in the district – Horizons CIS, Prospect High School, Crossroads HS, and Loma Vista Adult Education Center.

3. What made you want to be a part of the Northgate staff? Northgate is a very highly regarded high school in the district.  Also, I know a few teachers who are part and have been part of Northgate.  They all have nothing but positive things to say about this school.

4. Describe your experience so far. It’s been an adventure – quite a big change from what I was doing the last few years.  Alternative education high schools are small schools with much fewer students and staff.  I’m still trying to learn names and faces of teachers and staff.  But at least I know every single one of my students.  I truly enjoy seeing them and working with them every day.

5. What goals do you hope to achieve this year? Big thing on my list to be more familiar with this building!  I still get lost when walking around the halls looking for a classroom or an office.  Also, I want to get to know my students more.  I want to build a good working relationship with them and their families.
6. What is something interesting you would like to share? Last June, during the first week of summer break, I rode my bike for 545 miles in 7 days from San Francisco to Los Angeles.  It was a long ride but I got to see beautiful parts of California.

LUCIA BENEVENTE – MATH

Interview by Annabelle Garcia and Zoe Yu

1. What courses do you teach? Algebra 1 and Financial Algebra

2. What is your past educational or professional experience? I studied math at Saint Mary’s College of California for a year, Diablo Valley College for 2, and Chico State for 5. My teaching career started in the year 2020!!!! Quite the time. I spent Jan. to June 2021 being a long term substitute for someone on maternity leave at Orland High School, spent 2 years with Heritage High School in Brentwood, and now am a Bronco at Northgate!

3. What made you want to be a part of the Northgate staff? It was my first job interview, and I just automatically loved the vibe. Conversations with teachers from other schools taught me that teachers at Northgate tend to stick around due to it being such a great place to work! I also grew up around here and was excited to work closer to home.

4. Describe your experience so far. So far so good! Admin are super friendly and supportive! The students are silly, sweet, and studious (for the most part). There are lots of dogs on campus!!!

5. What goals do you hope to achieve this year? I hope to be better at staying organized, but that’s also like a life goal. I really hope I can rock the teacher AND swim coach role come February!

6. What is something interesting you would like to share? I’m a very easily amused person, and I do my all to treat everyone with love and respect. My goal in life is to make sure everyone knows that they are loved.

KRISTEN ZANONI – MATH

Interview by Audrey Crisostomo

1. What courses do you teach? This year I am teaching algebra 1, but I have taught all classes from Algebra 1-Honors Pre-Calculus.

2. What is your past educational or professional experience? I taught in San Diego for 9 years, at Concord high for 1 year and this is actually my 3rd year at Northgate.

3. What made you want to be a part of the Northgate staff? They are always so positive, helpful, hardworking and kind.

4. Describe your experience so far. It has been wonderful to be back after a year of maternity leave! I miss working with students/staff and being part of the Northgate community.

5. What goals do you hope to achieve this year? I hope to try some new activities in the classroom, but also keep a good work/life balance!

6. What is something interesting you would like to share? I only have 21 out of 26 teeth, and don’t have and never had any wisdom teeth.

AMANDA KRAMER – Resource Specialist

Interview by Katie Halligan

1. What courses do you teach? I teach three courses of academic success.

2. What is your past educational or professional experience? I worked for a school in Oakland for one year doing a counseling enriched classroom and then teaching physics. Prior to that, I taught in Chicago for four years teaching history and math.

3. What made you want to be a part of the Northgate staff? My husband worked with a lot of student athletes from Northgate and told me that the students were awesome and just that it’s a really good culture there and that everyone was happy to go to school which was really cool.

4. Describe your experience so far. Overall it’s been really great. I have been able to get more involved in certain things. I worked at one of the football games which was really cool to see students in a different environment than the classroom. Every teacher I have worked with has been amazing and they are down to collaborate which is really cool.

5. What goals do you hope to achieve this year? I hope to make sure that my seniors graduate and then also I really want to start co-teaching. There is one class here that is co-taught and I want to start more of that, hopefully soon.

6. What is something interesting you would like to share? I just got back from Japan. I’m half Japanese so it was really cool to be engulfed in the culture that I have never gotten to see till now.

TARA CACCIAMANI – CHEMISTRY

Interview by Emily Chao

1. What courses do you teach? I teach Chemistry of the Earth in Room 5.

2. What is your past educational or professional experience? I completed my M.S.C. in Chemistry, and found immense enjoyment in teaching other students during my various teaching assistantships. When I moved to the Bay Area in 2021, I applied to complete my teaching certificate at San Francisco State University. Concurrent with that, I did my student teaching here at Northgate during the 2022-23 school year with Mr. Miller, also in Room 5.

3. What made you want to be a part of the Northgate staff? When I met Mr. Miller to consider doing my student teaching here, I knew that I would learn so much from him about the teaching profession. Little did I know at the time that I would find a wonderful and supportive team of teachers here too. When a Chemistry teaching position opened up here for this year, I knew that I wanted to stay and become a permanent member of the Northgate Broncos team.

4. Describe your experience so far. Quite frankly, I feel like I have found a family here. There is so much learning and growing happening here, and even as a teacher I am doing so alongside all the students everyday too.

5. What goals do you hope to achieve this year? This year my goal is to learn what I can from everyone (students and teachers alike), apply that knowledge to my teaching, and come in every day a little bit better than the day before.

6. What is something interesting you would like to share? I would describe myself as a Maker. I got into Chemistry because I enjoyed the process of making things – it’s a very tangible subject in that way, but making transcends everything I do in life. I enjoy cooking and baking, knitting, sewing, and gardening, all of which involve making something into a new form.

DANIEL HORNE – ENGLISH

Interview by Emma Fox 

1. What courses do you teach? I teach English 1 and English 2.

2. What is your past educational or professional experience? I graduated with a BA in English from Georgetown University and an MA in Teaching English From Chowan University. I also taught Honors English 3 at Hertford County Early College High School before moving to California last December.

3. What made you want to be a part of the Northgate staff? The job opening coincided perfectly with when I moved to California, and Northgate is close to where I live.

4. Describe your experience. In a word, my experience thus far has been “busy”. I had no time to prepare for this semester and the previous teacher left me with a backlog of work and no lesson or unit plans for the future.

5. What goals do you hope to achieve this year? My primary mission for the remainder of this semester is to give my students a quality education which will set them up for future success.

6. What is something interesting you would like to share? I was a team captain for both the Georgetown and Chowan football teams and I am an Eagle Scout. Some of my hobbies include writing, juggling, cooking, and blacksmithing.

JEANNE COSTELLO  – MATH

(joined Northgate staff in 2022, and the Sentinel is adding here interview here, as well as in the 2022-23 new teachers focus)

Interview by Sahara Dixit

1. What courses do you teach? I teach Algebra II.

2. What is your past educational or professional experience? My most recent teaching position was at Ygnacio Valley High School for 5 years.

3. What made you want to be a part of the Northgate staff? I really like the Northgate community: the parents, the kids, and the staff. Things run very smoothly at this school.

4. Describe your experience so far. It’s been great! I really like the kids. They are kind, funny, and willing to work hard. The teachers have been welcoming and willing to help and share ideas.

5. What goals do you hope to achieve this year? Some students think they can’t do math. I like to work with these students to get them to realize anyone can do math with some hard work and persistence. I want my students to be engaged and have some fun too!

6. What is something interesting you would like to share? I have taught math for over 30 years. I like to be active outside of the classroom. I do yoga and do a lot of walking.