With this new year, comes the arrival of a substantial amount of newcomers to Venice High. Freshman students get introduced to teachers, and teachers get to know their students.  There is a select number of new teachers beginning to teach for Venice High. 

The first teacher is Mr. Steven Hosohama. He teaches Physical Education. He graduated from Pepperdine University and began teaching in 1998 at the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies for seven years before moving to University High School from 2005 to 2018. His hobbies are pickleball as well as tennis. He is an avid fan of pickleball, being on a competitive pickleball team and a first year ambassador for the sport in the school. Pickleball is a combination of tennis and table tennis, where teams hit a perforated plastic ball using a paddle across the net.

Another one of the newer teachers is Ms. Shauna Proctor. She studied education at California State University Fullerton. She spent her time working as a teachers associate and co-teachered until she got her teaching degree, and has been teaching in the LAUSD district for three years. This year marks her first year teaching Resources at Venice High. When asked what  she thought of the school and the students, she remarked on how “friendly the students and staff are.” She enjoys reading, drawing, painting, and dancing in her spare time.

Another new teacher who teaches resource is a Ms. Priscilla Grant. She began working as a teacher at Fremont High in 2010, and this school year is her first year teaching for Venice. When asked about the change in campus, Ms. Grant said: “I like the space.” Ms. Grant also works with students in mathematics labs in the afternoon. Ms. Grant noted that her hobbies were a passion for oil painting, bicycling, gardening, and baking.

Interestingly, one of the new teachers to Venice this year is actually a returning teacher. Ms. Gruen was the Special Education Coordinator for 14 years on campus and has taught varying subjects from Culinary Arts to Intercoordinated Science. She also enjoys yoga, urban farming, and giving love to her pet husky.

Mr. Craig Zimmerman is a special ed teacher. He has an undergraduate degree in creative writing and journalism.

 ”I just feel like I can relate to students who have special needs…My understanding of how difficult it is to be a special needs student made me want to help special need kids“ Mr. Zimmerman said who is from  Manhattan, New York City.

A majority of his life he lived in New York. In 2013 he decided to come to California and got married. He has worked in South Central for the last few years until he found a job opening here at Venice. He found it easier because of family purposes. He had also heard great things about Venice High so he wanted to give it a try.

Ms. Wiley  teaches English here at Venice High. She majored in English.

She found English an easy subject and she decided to teach it. She’s from the Carson area in Los Angeles. She student-taught here, then she ended up liking the Venice’s atmosphere and decided to interview for the job at Venice.