A former Pueblo Magnet High School language arts teacher, Mr. Baltazar Alcantara, has once again become a Warrior. After eleven years, we welcome him back as our new English Learning Development (ELD) coordinator.
“I really feel as if I’m back home,” he said.
Alcantara explained that one of his primary functions in his new position is job is to ensure that the school is compliant for English Language Learners (ELL’s).
“My goal is to make sure that the students can take an equal part in this country,” he said.
After leaving Pueblo for more than a decade, Alcantara said that he had brief “homes” at Valencia Middle School and Catalina High School, but he knew that Pueblo truly felt like home the most when he returned.
“It’s [being at Pueblo] almost as if I’m living with cousins,” he said.
In the first quarter of this school year, Alcantara said that one of his goals was the build trust relationships with students, and he said that he definitely achieved this goal.
“I will work here for as long as there is need,” Alcantara said. “What appears to be difficult is always a lot bigger in your mind. You don’t realize that you can actually achieve something so great and awesome until you actually commit to its completion.”
This semester, 12 potential Pueblo students will be marching to the traditional “Pomp and Circumstance” at Catalina High School Auditorium on Thursday, December 22, 2016 at 6:00 p.m., along with all other December graduates in T.U.S.D.
Noah Kowaleski is one of those proud seniors who will be attending the ceremony.
“It’s about time that I graduate,” Kowaleski said. “LAZINESS and PROCRASTINATION—with capital letters—were my two best friends. Luckily, they moved away, far away, and I was able to focus on finishing my credits this semester.” He paused and said, “I plan to attend Pima next fall, after saving some money.”
Another senior on track to graduate, Hugo Reyes, said, “Noah [Kowaleski] and I had the same best friends last year—laziness and procrastination. Thank God these ‘friends’ moved, and I was able to stay on-task with my necessary classes and graduate.” He, too, said that he will attend Pima in the fall of 2017, eventually pursuing a degree in computer engineering.
Francisco Enriquez will be part of this ceremony, too. “My mom inspired me to finish. It was very important for her to watch me graduate because neither her nor my father graduated from high school. I also want to be an inspiration to my younger siblings. They should be able to see their older brother graduate from high school.”
Enrique paused and said that he plans to attend Pima Community College to pursue a career as a medical assistant. “I want to help others—it’s important that I fulfill this commitment,” he said.
The Pueblo Community holds out its hands to shake these students who have committed to graduating as Warriors, and we wish them the best of luck in their prodigious futures. The following 12 Pueblo students are potential December graduates:
Jose Manuel Aguirre Jr., Manuel Iram Burruel Leon, Danny Jesse Carpio, Francisco Ismael Enriquez Gonzalez, Irma Aide Garcia Corona, Cristian Garcia Del Villar, Giselle Mariscal, Noah Gabriel Montaño Kowaleski, Eathann Ahlexys Puentes, Hugo Reyes Jr., David Sanchez Figueroa & Alejandro Noel Selis.
At the near end of this first semester, many of this year’s freshmen are finally feeling relaxed and feeling confident about how to get all of their classes. However, this wasn’t always the case. For the first two or three weeks, upperclassmen were snickering about freshmen looking at Pueblo’s map trying to figure out how to get to their next class. Perhaps these seniors were remembering being freshmen themselves just three short years ago.
If it seems as if there are a lot of new, young faces, you are correct. This year’s freshmen class is the largest in recent memory—545, to be exact, as of Dec. 6, 2016.
Class Of 2020 in Mrs. Gunnels’ English Class
For freshman Nayleah Ayala, high school has been more than what she has expected it to be. “Here at Pueblo, the teachers really do help you achieve many things. They all want us to pass—and they are passionate about this.”
Eliam Mecias said the freshman orientation during the summer helped him find his classes and was also an excellent way to help him make friends.
Another freshman, Ceciana Garraid, said that her primary goal this year is to join a sport. “I think that being part of a sport or a club is a great way to bond with other students. Plus, I’ll be required to keep my grades up.”
Daniel Casaraz, freshman, wants to be the second one in his family to graduate and make his parents proud because they were unable to graduate. “I have great parents who encourage me to do my best, and I know this is an important factor to my success in high school.”
Denisse Amezquita’s biggest concern about coming to high school was getting lost in the hallways, upperclassmen bullying her, and the teachers not being under standing with her personal problems. “After a few weeks, my fears became less, but I was very frustrated for the first few weeks of the school year.”
Some freshman had some challenges with the schedule and their high school classes.
“Getting used to my schedule was a bit tough,” said freshman Karime Baker. “After two weeks, however, I adjusted to everything.”
Ruben Huerta, freshman, admitted, “I took me a few weeks to start liking my classes. In the end, I liked all of them—especially my AVID class with Ms. Bojorquez.”
Another freshman, Nicole Del Torre said, “I don’t like being a freshman because to me it’s more boring than middle school. I’m not making friends as fast as I thought. I hope to change my attitude next semester and learn to be more positive because I’m a great person and would love to share that with others.”
Niomi Baumea, a freshman, said, “I hate how crowded it is for lunch. I’ll be standing in line, and others will cut in line. During passing periods, there are too many kids stopping to talk. There needs to be more monitoring during this time to make sure that everybody gets to their classes.”
Academically, one freshman, Jenyffer Lopez, said, “Some of my classes are easier than I thought, but some—like AP human geography—are challenging. I’m doing okay and have learned how to manage my time better for homework. I didn’t fail any classes this semester, so I’m doing better than some of my peers.”
Stephanie Carpio, a freshman, said, “Many of my classes were more difficult than my middle school classes—especially biology. I am learning that talking to my teachers makes a big difference.”
Native-American counselor Ms. Amalia Salazar’s advice to freshmen is to stay on tract in all of their classes, especially English and math, probably the two subjects that high school students fail most often, especially during ninth grade.
Ms. Rosalina Anaya, another counselor, stressed the importance of freshmen learning how to balance fun and academics because this school year is when many students make the most mistakes.
Pueblo’s football team finished off the season with a winning record of 6-4, which was slightly disappointing compared to last year’s record. However, the team did score a major victory over Palo Verde for the second year in a row.
Despite a less than stellar season, Coach Brandon Sanders was proud of his team and how well they played this season.
Sanders said, “We played good this year, being a young team.”
Impressed with his young teams determination, senior linebacker Anthony Garcia said,”I’m really proud of how devoted we were, being as young as we were.”
Sanders hopes that for next year his team will grow not only physically but mentally as well.
“My hope is that the players this year grow to have more commitment [to football],” said Sanders.
Senior Anthony Garcia leaves his team with confidence knowing the varsity team will do even better next year.
The boys’ soccer team started off the 2016-17 season with a loss in the Panther Invitational, but they refused to let this loss stop them from trying to repeat their status as Arizona State Champions last year. Despite a disappointing record of 1-4 (as Dec. 16), the team is tenacious about having a winning season.
Alexis Urtuzastetegui, a senior, has been a part of the Warrior soccer team since his freshman year, and this year, as a center-mid, is also the team captain.
“This year, our goal is to make it to State again, but more realistically we’re hoping to make it to the playoffs,” said Urtuzastetgui.
He added that he believes that the strengths within the team is their strong communication skills, and that communication will, indeed, be an asset that will career the team to great heights.
Coach Francisco Urtuzastetgui agrees with his son—“Everybody is like family, and with that positive attitude, the team will be successful whatever their record ends up being.”
The coach also added that in order for the team to be truly successful this season, team members need to put in 110% effort—not just 100%. The boys also need to focus more and concentrate on their positive qualities.
He added, “We [the team and I] have to take into consideration that it’s a new team—last year was different and exceptional. Every team is a little different, and no two teams are ever quite the same.”
Several of the players need to work on their techniques, Urtuzastegui said. There are also some tactics that need to be developed. Some players are not as experienced and need more time on the field.
Urtuzastetgui concluded with, “I am very proud of the players for the effort they’re putting in, even though we haven’t reached our objectives yet. A season is about development and getting better all of the time.” He paused and added, “I have trust in faith in them.”
The team recently played Desert View on December 15; unfortunately, our Warriors lost.
New to our Warrior Family this school year is Dr. Christine Wiley, who is starting the 2016-17 school year as a new ELD (English Language Development) teacher to educate students whose primary language is not English.
Wiley has a very eclectic teaching resumé. She taught for a while at the University of California (at Irvine) and even taught English in Japan to junior high school Japanese students. This is Wiley’s first year teaching high school students.
“I grew up in Tucson, so in essence I moved back home,” Wiley said. “I decided that I really wanted to teach ELD in public education. It seemed like a perfect fit considering my past teaching experience.”
There are four levels of ELD classes, and each ELD student is placed in one of these levels depending upon their level of expertise. Beginning English learners are enrolled in ELD 1; those students who are almost ready to transition to a “regular” English class are enrolled in ELD 4. This year, Wiley teaches ELD levels 3 and 4, which includes students in all four grades of high school.
Wiley said her goal for this year is to be the best teacher that she can be and help students achieve their academic goals.
“Even though this is my first semester here, I can tell that I already like Pueblo’s students,” Wiley said. “They are all very nice and very caring.”
