For the past few years, Rocklin High has had a massive influx of new freshmen, wide eyed and nervous but ready to learn. However, teachers are becoming overwhelmed by the increasing number of students in each of their classes, some exceeding 40 students.

Math is no exception, as tons of freshmen have to take Integrated 1 are getting their first taste of high school math. However, there is a new face on campus, both new to the school and to high school teaching, ready to take on the challenge: Mr. Victor Martinez.

Martinez came over from Springview Middle School. It was there that he laid down the benchmark for his teaching career.

“Springview was a good home and a good place to start for me, I learned a lot but I heard that Rocklin High School had a math position available and high school level math has always been something that I wanted to teach and I’ve wanted to become apart of the community in a lot of ways, I just want to become more involved with the community here with Rocklin High, I think the demographic here is more fit for what I want to teach, they’re more mature and able to take challenges better.” says Martinez.

As a new math teacher, Martinez brings not only what the math department requires, but also new methods to bring efficient and modern ways of getting the points across to both freshmen and juniors alike.

“I think the Rocklin High School math department is very organized but I think with the technological wave coming across America and especially with our youth it is important to work around the technology and to work alongside it, students need to become more comfortable working with it, especially if they want to get some real world experience in a job that requires such technology”.

“I have some methods that I like to do with practices and other things like that, I feel like every teacher has a sort of ‘toolbelt’, they have this strategy, they have that strategy, things that you can always pull out of your pocket that you can help your students engage better with the lesson”.

“Something that I enjoy about the Common Core system is that it makes the students think about more than just seeing what’s right and wrong, it forces them to construct an argument and to use sound logic with it, and I think that skill is more important than being accurate in mathematics. I think it’s a good blend of thinking how to construct said arguments and to be somewhat accurate with their work and mathematical thinking.”

“However, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and I feel like with some of these methods I might have to try it, retool it, reintroduce it. I feel like I grow the most using methods like that while also picking some of the other math teachers on campus and using some of those in my class as well, but mostly it just takes time.”

In short, Martinez hopes to being new ways of providing math to the students of Rocklin, both new and old, using both new and old methods from his personal doctrine and the way that Rocklin wants it done. Let us, the students of Rocklin, hope he delivers this vow of good teaching.