23 Years Later
by
Mark Jimenez
In May of 1999 I graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Math Education from the University of Southern California. It was a pretty awesome and memorable day. The Southern California sun was shining and everybody was in a great mood. Graduation speakers at the general graduation included Arnold Schwarzenegger, Madeleine Albright, and Rosa Parks. One of my favorite memories was at the College of Education graduation where we actually got to walk across the stage. They gave us a card where we spelled our name phonetically for the announcer. The shortest person to graduate that day wrote her name as Shaquille O'Neal (who was then playing down the road for the Lakers). What a fun day!
Mark at Undergraduate Graduation from USC - 1999
In 1999 there was an extreme teacher shortage in California. It was a great time to be entering the teaching field. My advisor told me that schools weren't interviewing me, I was interviewing them. At the time of graduation I had already been hired to teach math at Redondo Union High School (RUHS) in Redondo Beach, CA. All I had to do was wait until Labor Day to get started. RUHS is one of the largest high school campuses in America. It's so large, in fact, that students had a 10 minute passing period to get from class to class, as opposed to the standard 5 minute passing period.
Being somewhat impatient, I contacted the Assistant Principal and asked if there were any summer school positions open. There were, and just like that I was scheduled to teach summer school.
In June of 1999 I walked into my very first classroom. Starting with a summer school class was a bit of baptism by fire. I look back at those first classes now and I realize that I had absolutely no classroom management skills at all. I was 21 years old, right out of college, and I struggled to teach the kids anything.
Mark with a lot more hair (and a few more pounds) standing on the RUHS campus, spring 1999
Summer did eventually end, though, and I survived. I got through my first year of teaching and I got a bit better at what I did. In fact, the Redondo Beach Unified School District named me Rookie Teacher of the Year for the 1999-2000 school year. I spent four years at RUHS, and left in 2003 to come to Las Vegas.
I kept teaching in Las Vegas. I taught at a few different schools. I was teacher of the year two more times in my career. I coached cross country, wrestling (something I knew nothing about, but learned) and track during my time as a teacher. I taught kids math and history. One of the best parts about being a teacher was when the kids would come up to you outside of the classroom. My favorite is when it would happen years after I had them in class.
"You're Mr. J, right?" (after 2009 it became Dr. J)
"Yes, I had you in class at such and such school!"
"You were the best teacher! You made math make sense!"
I always felt like a rock star. Things like that still happen to this day, and they always leave me feeling great.
Mark in his classroom, around 2008
I think I'm one of the few people who can say I honestly enjoyed teaching. I loved the interaction with the students. I loved watching them grow. I loved the small successes they would have. For a long time I taught the class to seniors who hadn't passed the proficiency test yet. I was their last shot. At that time if you didn't pass that test, you didn't graduate. We had amazing success, over 95% of the students I had in those classes passed the tests.
Perhaps the worst part about teaching was the students we lost along the way. In my 23 year career, there were a few students who passed away. It is always tragic when a young person passes. Their memories are still with me, and I remember each of them. There are some days when I see a smile that will remind me of them, and I fondly remember the energy they had and how full of life they were. Hug your loved ones, because life is too short.
Another thing I didn't enjoy about teaching was the bureaucracy of a large district and the public perception of teachers. I hated the way some people treated us like glorified babysitters. I hated the way the bureaucracy made doing my job more and more difficult.
But at the end of the day, teaching was always about the students.
These last few years were difficult. We all know what happened with Covid. School being canceled 3/4 of the way through one year. Going online for another, and then coming back for the 2021-2022 school year not knowing what was happening. It was hard to be a teacher. And it was really hard to be a teacher and run a business. I was being stretched too thin. Red Rock Running Company opened a new store in February of 2022. As a company, we have achieved unprecedented levels of success, but that success was demanding more and more of my time. Something had to give, and at the end of the day, teaching was that thing.
On May 26, 2022, I walked out of my classroom for the last time.
The Medal Wall is a constant feature of Mark's classroom wherever he has taught
It was very hard for me to do, and it was more than a little emotional. I'm going to miss teaching and I'm going to miss working with young people. I'm going to miss being in a place to make a positive impact. I'm going to miss being at the same school that my youngest daughter is at. I'm going to miss the wonderful friends I've made along the way.
The good news is that I'll still be working at the school as a Cross Country coach. I'll still get to work with kids. It won't be the same, but at least it will be something.
I'm looking forward to being able to continue to grow your local running store. We've done amazing things in the last couple of years, and that's with me having a full time teaching job. I'm so excited to see what we can do when all of my energy is focused on making Red Rock Running Company the best it can be.
While I'm sad that my teaching career is over, I'm very excited to see what the future holds. I hope that I'll still run into former students along the way and that they'll keep saying hi to me. I hope that the good teachers out there can stick through these hard times and find the happiness they deserve on the other side. I hope that you are as excited about the future as I am.
It's not a retirement, it's a refocusing of my energy. Let's get to work.
Every Run is a Good Run