As Venice High welcomes 638 new freshmen, the school is also welcoming seven new educators ready to take the oars and steer the boat this school year.

Social Studies teacher Armando Magallanes

From an early age, Armando Magallanes has considered himself a history nerd. His eagerness even earned him an opportunity to teach a lesson on the Renaissance back in seventh grade. Since then, he’s wanted to be a teacher.

An East LA native, Magallanes has stayed close to home for his past two student-teacher experiences: Orthopedic Hospital Medical Magnet High School in South LA and Abraham Lincoln High School in Lincoln Heights. He has also tutored undergrads, high schoolers, and children during his college years.

In his free time, Magallanes enjoys collecting things, a few being Funko Pops, pins, and vinyls. 

“I really love music of all kinds,” he says, “particularly older older generation music…”

Now at his first official position at Venice, he is teaching both Honors World History and AP U.S. History. 

He says that he has “always leaned towards the order students…11th in particular, because that’s the year they feel the burn.”

Magallanes was most shocked by the size of the school, as well as the school’s population (over 2,000 students is a large adjustment from around 900 at his previous school). He also noted that the support of the staff is off the charts, stating that he is “yet to meet a teacher who is closed off.”

Magallanes is also getting involved by sponsoring the Alzheimer’s Awareness Club to support his students and highlight the cause.

His goal for the year is to prepare students enough to not be so scared of the AP exam. He also wants to provide a welcoming space for students.  

“I’m trying to leave the place better than it was when I arrived,” he says.

Math teacher Elvira Spadafora 

Spadafora grew up in L.A. and remembers her enthusiasm for math and teaching beginning at a young age. 

“As I grew up, I basically fell in love with math and wanted to spread my passion for math,” she said.

Many years later, she has 11 years of teaching under her belt—all of them being at Wiseburn Middle School, where she taught sixth grade math, eighth grade math, and Algebra 1.  Now, she is feeling optimistic about the change and her chance to teach Geometry in addition to Algebra 1.

Outside of the classroom, Spadafora spends her free time watching movies and reading.  She also coaches cheer here at Venice, which is a sport she has been involved in for 16 years.

After her first few weeks, she describes Venice as welcoming and thinks it has a strong sense of community.  This year, she is looking forward to building strong relationships with her students and hopes to create an engaging learning environment.  

In the long run, Spadafora is excited to contribute to the community, help students grow, and collaborate with colleagues to strengthen the programs Venice has.

English teacher Anthony Tamborino 

Tamborino has traveled far to get to where he is today. He grew up in Stamford, a city on the coast of Connecticut and moved to LA to work in the entertainment industry.  However, once in the city, he was drawn into teaching.

Tamborino’s interest in teaching was sparked back in third grade by his music teacher.  

“‘That seems like fun, and that’s what I want to do,’” he remembers thinking.   

He enjoys that teaching is such a fulfilling job that you can leave every day feeling accomplished and like you make a difference.

His previous experiences include student-teaching at Fountain Valley High School in Orange County and working at Legacy High School in Southgate.

As for hobbies, Tamborino likes filmmaking, hiking, and baking. He also noted that he would be interested to see a culinary class offered at Venice.

This year, he is teaching all ninth grade English classes and is looking forward to being able to put all his focus into those classes. In previous years, he would have to split up the planning, preparing, and grading between his differing grade level classes.

Tamborino explained that he has felt a lot of kindness from the community, which has helped him a lot with the adjustment to a new school.  Venice’s programs have also stood out to him.

 “It seems like there’s just a [wider] variety of offerings here [than] you’d get at another high school,” he says.

This year, he’s excited to make his ninth grade class the best it can be.  And, all in all, Tamborino can’t wait to build connections with fellow staff members and collaborate with other English teachers.

Other new teachers to Venice High school include Spanish teacher William Chang, math teacher Manuel Flores, English teacher Marissa Savage, and physics teacher Christopher Sterza