Hi, my name is Mr. Cerda. This is my first year teaching here at Irvington. I teach Chemistry and Honors Chemistry. I’m really excited to be here and this seems like a great school. I’m super pumped to be a part of this community! 

I think a lot of my memories of being a student at school were staying up late and doing a lot of homework. Not the most fun experiences, but there are some mixed in there. My favorite parts were spending time with my friends, going to school dances and sporting events, and just enjoying the time I had in high school. Even during those parts when you are staying up late, studying, and doing all the work, just remember that you’re not alone. You have all your peers that you’re working with too and for me, I spent a lot of that time studying with my friends. Even though we were working, you know, we still had a lot of fun because we were able to do that all together. 

After high school, I actually had no idea what I wanted to do. Even through college, I really wasn’t sure what to pursue. I changed my major about three times during college.  I wanted to major in aerospace engineering. That was originally my idea. I took a few classes and decided that was just not for me. I went from there to math, and I decided that math was also not for me. I just wasn’t having fun with those classes. I decided to take some chemistry classes, just for fun, and I really liked it. That’s how I ended up majoring in chem. 

One of the funniest moments I had at college was actually in a chemistry lab with a professor. The professor dropped something on the floor and when he bent down to pick it up, his pants ripped just completely in half. He just stood up, looked at us all, and he was like “I’m gonna be right back.” Then he drove to his house, got a new pair of pants, and came back. We were all cracking up about it.

After college, I decided I was going to start substitute teaching. Once I did substitute teaching, I realized that I really like working in the classroom and with students. That’s when I realized that I wanted to be a teacher. I’m from Southern California and so my first experiences teaching were at several different high schools down there. 

I think my favorite moments teaching at those schools were probably when students brought up something random in class and then I just twisted it around, and asked them, “What’s the chemistry behind that?” That’s how I became known as the teacher who could relate anything to chemistry.

Teaching wouldn’t be fun without the students, you know. They always come in every day, super energetic to learn, or even just participate in class. Sometimes they come up with some of the most random things and it just makes the day fun. I never know what to expect. That’s probably my favorite part. Some of the challenges definitely have got to be the change back into in-person learning versus remote. I think we’re all pretty used to remote learning and just changing back and getting used to all the different things we have going on at Irvington for me has been a little bit of a challenge, but I’m slowly progressing and figuring it all out. 

Overall, It’s been awesome teaching here the few weeks that I have been here. The best part is, and I repeat myself, but the students. The students are amazing here. They’re always on time, ready to learn, and ready to engage in the class. I just love the students here. I’m getting to know them all and they make the whole school awesome.