By Emily Lockwood
Life Editor
Mira Costa’s teaching staff is one of the most reputable attributes of the school. However, the administration stops at no limit to improve the educators who inhabit Costa’s classrooms.
Before the start of the second semester, a panel with members of the Foreign Language Department and school administration decided to hire Timothy Hirsh to replace Robert Lattimore as a Costa French teacher.
“We hired Hirsh because of his background, even though he is a new teacher,” Vice Principal Jaime Mancilla said.
Hirsh has a Bachelor’s degree in French and psychology from UC Davis and a Master’s degree from The University of Texas at Austin.
“I was planning on getting a doctorate in French,” Hirsh said. “It was starting to take a toll on me mentally after being alone in the library for so long. I needed to do something where I would interact with people, and teaching was the way to go.”
Prior to being hired at Costa, Hirsh lived in France and taught students English at the middle school level.
“Teaching in France was very different,” Hirsh said. “I mainly taught English vocabulary words to my students.”
When Hirsh was a student teacher at Los Alamitos High School several months ago, Principal Dr. Ben Dale and Vice Principal Ian Drummond observed him at the school.
“It didn’t affect me to have them watch me teach,” Hirsh said. “Being a good teacher is to not let unexpected situations rattle you.”
This semester, Hirsh is teaching three levels of French: French 1-2, French 3-4, and French 5-6.
“Hirsh has an enthusiastic personality and is a great teacher,” sophomore Erin Clifford said. “He is a great fit for our class.”
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