Dublin, CA – Eleven new teachers at Fallon Middle School have joined our Mustang community. Here’s more about these amazing educators at our school.
Schools around the globe have all changed. Fallon has changed too. Not only by the students that walk past these halls, but the teachers that come and go. The teachers that educate the future leaders of this world. This year, Fallon has welcomed eleven new teachers. They all have new and inspiring ideas to thrive in the learning environment of our school.
Many former students know her from teaching at Kolb, and she has now become part of the Fallon family. Ms. Baker is an eighth grade history teacher who has 10 years of previous teaching experience and went to Cal Poly for her college education. “If I can even get one student a year to really enjoy that year, maybe not even social studies, maybe not even me as a teacher, but enjoy school just a little bit, I’ll take it as a win.” She personally loves school and hopes to inflict this point of view on all her students. She loves playing music in her class, while students work and interact, while she makes sure that her lessons stick with her students.. As a child, she loved reading and wanted to be a librarian at one point, however, that took a turn to teaching for her career. Ms. Baker is such a sweet teacher, and you might just be lucky to find yourself sitting in her classroom.
Teaching both the Competitive Speech and Debate elective class and eighth grade English, he is a superstar in teaching. This is Mr. Baldwin’s fourth year of teaching, and he has formerly taught at Cottonwood Creek Middle School before coming to Fallon. Initially wanting to become a lawyer, he realized that the office life wasn’t for him, “I’d like to build enough of a reputation and be here long enough… where I get students where I’ve had their siblings.” Once he moved to the teaching field, he didn’t have one regret. It came natural for him to teach Competitive Speech and Debate, and seeing that there was a spot open for it, he didn’t have to think twice about it. He thoroughly enjoys teaching and hopes to be a supporting figure for students.
When you have children, you have a different mindset and view on school. You are more devoted to helping out with education and know the actual effect it has on kids if it’s good. “I’m heavily invested in Fallon. There is no school I would have wanted to work at more than Fallon Middle School.” Mr. Bostic’s youngest son is going to Fallon next year, so making the school a better place for his son and all of the Mustangs is close to his heart. His favorite part of his day is connecting with his kids, his students, and making sure they get all the help they might need. His students are his motivation that keep him doing better, whether it’s teaching or making sure that the students are getting the information they need to succeed. Teaching for 8 years, Mr. Bostic was formerly a long-term substitute teacher hoping to start his teaching career. He sees himself here at Fallon in the future and can’t wait to continue his Fallon story.
Ms. Causapin is our new sixth grade vice principal for the 23-24 school year. As well as responding to many emails, she has many duties in our school, from being a supervisor to handling student discipline. “Getting to know anyone, everyone, and everything because it’s my first year here and there is a lot to learn,” is one of her priorities. She wanted to make sure that she knows almost every face on campus and can create connections with all of the people at this school. Her childhood dream was to become a teacher. Well, besides the childhood desire to become an astronaut. She has been a teacher for more than 15 years, and she has taught math at the high school level. In the future, she wishes to write a novel and continue to work here at Fallon. Ms. Causapin has two kids, which have changed her view on teaching. This has changed her point of view of students and helps her understand them better. Learning every day, she hopes to help every student grow.
Their advice as a former high school physical education teacher is, “Don’t be afraid to ask for help, make connections, and try new things.” They have been wanting to be a teacher since they were a child and after taking math in college, and right before getting their major in math, they realized that they wanted to become a physical education teacher. And that’s exactly what they did. Coach Clark is one of the physical education department teachers here at Fallon and taught in high school before coming to Fallon. This school year is their eleventh year teaching and they have taught all grades. Explaining why they teach, they say, “I wanted to teach PE so I could teach younger kids and other young adults how to take care of their bodies and have lifelong health and fitness.” As well as listening to Taylor Swift, they love doing physical activities outside of teaching PE and teaching kids something new every day.
If you’ve met her, or even just said hi, you must have realized that Ms. Doherty is full of sunshine and loves helping out her students. She is a sixth grade core teacher here at Fallon. Becoming a teacher 8 years ago, she realized that it was one of the best decisions she has made career-wise. While raising her boys, she determined that she wanted to make a difference in kids’ lives, both educational and personal. Furthermore, she believes that now is the time to make a difference, and her goal is to prepare her students for high school, college, and whatever is coming their way in life. The connection she makes with students is really what makes her a great teacher, and sees herself here at Fallon making kids smile in five years. One of the biggest parts of choosing to be a teacher is grammar, saying that, “watching them succeed, learning the grammar, and knowing how to put it in the writing makes me happy.”
You might have seen Ms. Green, working at the front desk of the office, whether you’re getting picked up early or just going to the nurse. She loves the part of her job where she collects information and files through all the important data to make sure our school is running smoothly. She was a former admin and teacher at a small private school. One of the things she is excited to be working on at Fallon is the new camera and buzzer system for the gate. She believes this will help her to do her job to protect the students of Fallon. She is one of the kindest people you’ll meet, and finds the Mustang Roundup to be one of her favorite events we’ve had at Fallon so far. Some advice she would give to Fallon Mustangs is, “There’s always someone that they can reach out to if they need help, or anything like that.”
When looking at Ms. Harris’ classroom, you can see that her class is full of fun, and inviting to all of her students. She got inspired to become a teacher in high school, when she got the opportunity to work in a fourth grade classroom. As you may know, she is one of the new seventh grade core teachers at Fallon, and aims to make Fallon a community where students look out for each other. Not only has she been a teacher for twenty-eight years, she has been the only teacher that has taught at all of the middle schools in the Dublin Unified School District. Ms. Harris sees herself here at Fallon for the long term. She thinks that Fallon is a great community and believes that Fallon is different from other schools saying that, “The students and teachers here have this spirit, and energy that is not found at the other two schools at all.”
Mr. Mack is an SLD teacher helping out those who need it most. Surprised at the amount of students at our school, he thinks the campus is really cool and easy for everyone to locate, even if they haven’t been here before. Teaching a special ed class, he enjoys the way all the kids make him happy and how engaging Fallon is. “So I’m really glad that in this short amount of time, I’ve really enjoyed getting to meet all the different students,” he said about going into both general and special education classrooms. However, his favorite part is getting to know all his students really well, especially since he has the same set of students for the whole school day. His brother was born with down syndrome, so it was a natural fit for him to go into special education and help students.
Moving from Michigan, this is her first time teaching at a middle school. Ms. Staff is a seventh grade Course 2 math teacher. She always wanted to be a teacher as a child. When asked what the best thing about Fallon was in her opinion, she said, “I would say all the different clubs that the students get to do. I think that’s a great opportunity for them to take a lead and for them to go by student interests rather than the school deciding what students might be interested in.” She is the head of the theater club this year and hopes to include some sort of productions for plays in the future. Fallon was the school she chose to teach at because she got, “Amazing feelings that it was a great place to be,” and has been sticking with that decision ever since.
Mr. Yassin plays a big role in our school community, as he is the 8th grade vice principal. He often helps with the morning announcements, and he is seen supervising during lunches quite frequently. “It’s a beautiful campus…I’m glad I’m with a great team,” is one of the many things he spoke about his experience so far at Fallon. His goal is to improve our community and make sure that Fallon is always moving forward. Moreover, he wants to make a difference in kids’ lives as knows that this is the time to do so. He has been a teacher for many years now and enjoys doing his job. Mr. Yassin feels that an admin has a different job than a teacher, and that’s something he is still getting used to.
Throughout our changes at Fallon, we have always been proud to welcome new staff to our campus. This year is no different. Our teachers come from various backgrounds, and this new wave of diversity makes our campus different and unique. Let’s wish these teachers a great big Mustang welcome to Fallon Middle School.
