Casa Grande has many new teachers this year joining the Big House family. After a year of distance learning, teachers and students are returning to campus; but, there are a few teachers who are brand new to the Casa campus.

Adam Rosenstein started his first year teaching at Casa Grande this year. Rosenstein has always seen himself becoming a teacher. Rosenstein’s godmother was an elementary school teacher in San Francisco, so she ended up being his biggest influence to become a teacher.

“I was always around her and she was always talking about teaching and school. So she was the main driver for me to become a teacher” Rosenstein said. “I just think everything I did growing up pointed me towards teaching… I started coaching football first then it led to me teaching.” said Rosenstein.

Rosenstein now teaches Physical Education here at Casa Grande. He has always liked the mind-body connection and enjoys moving and exercising. Rosenstein has done many things that involve moving that led him to becoming a teacher.

“It goes back to me teaching football… I also did a lot of weight training. I love to move and exercise. It’s one of the best jobs, I get to move around all day and exercise” said Rosenstein.

Rosenstein has always seen himself as a teacher and everything he’s done has led to him teaching P.E. He loves his job and doesn’t plan on stopping any time soon.

Although Alissa Napier just started teaching at Casa, she has brought with her 15 years of teaching experience. 

Her teaching career began in Basset, Virginia with students in kindergarten through 3rd grade. Then she came to California and taught at Victor Ellis in North Valley. Most recently, prior to joining the Casa team, she was an administrator at Journey Academy.

“I wanted to be a teacher ever since I was five years old,” said Napier.

Her fifth grade teacher Mrs. Denic was there for her during her grandparents’ passing and had a great impact on her. That is what led her to become a teacher. For her to teach Special Ed happened when she was in Virgina and aided a second grade boy who had autism, she thought at the time that she still wanted to teach general but,

“I like working with the students that don’t get it” Napier said. 

She is really enjoying being back in-person with students. She mentioned how there’s a lot of laughter here at Casa and she loves it.

Olivia Baldwin is starting her first year here at Casa after teaching the previous year at Sacramento High School.

Baldwin comes from generations of teachers, her mom and grandma were teachers. Although teaching was in the family, she wanted to do something else for her career. But, one thing changed that thought.

“I just remembered how many students and kids over the years that were really like affected or impacted by the work my mom did,” Baldwin said.

She also loved the subject Science and decided to teach that subject. She went to high school at Petaluma High. She knew she wanted to major in science when she got to college she chose molecular biology as her major. She started teaching for Teach for America then taught at Sacramento High School, and now currently teaches at Casa Grande and Petaluma High School. 

Dusty Neu started teaching at Casa Grande High School as an English teacher, teaching Sophomore English and Senior English in the American Voices cluster. 

Neu recently relocated from the East Coast with his wife and son. He and his wife are both originally from California, so the move was more of a homecoming.

Prior to teaching at Casa, Neu taught in Providence Rhode Island, Brown University, and has taught English as a second language in Rome. 

“I’ve taught literacy intervention, poetry, and writing for English as a second language,” Neu said.

He decided to teach English because he has a passion for reading literature and wants to share this with students. His desire to help students navigate their way through challenging texts.

Neu has decorated his classroom space with numerous indoor plants and LED lights. This offers the perfect setting with lighting and a natural feel. He also has a plethora of English themed t-shirts and is quite fond of fork-lift memes. His students describe him as a pretty cool guy who really likes English. 

Kelin Castleberry is re-joining the teaching team at Casa this year. After several years away, she has returned to teach English.

When asked why she pursued teaching she said she started it when she was young and then she stopped; then when she became a mother, she then went back into teaching after some time. While she was taking a break she spent time working on her business in leadership and nonprofits. However, she never lost her heart of teaching, and continued to teach within her community. 

In addition to teaching at Casa, Castleberry has taught in Napa for about seven years. She also taught Event Planning and Culinary Arts, in addition to English.

Throughout the year she likes to watch her students grow. Teaching is “the ultimate job” describes Castleberry.

Kate Carlberg (the newly Mrs. Tenorio — she got married Sunday, October 10th) is teaching English 9 and English 11 in I-House.

Carlberg is a Petaluma native and graduated from Petaluma High School. She then went to SRJC before transferring to UC Berkeley as an Anthropology and Art History Major. She was a TA in SRJC and she really enjoyed her time doing it.  During the time before she graduated from UC Berkeley, she reflected on what she wanted to do after studying another subject or getting her PhD. During this time, she looked into different careers and one of them was teaching. Luckily for Casa, she went down the route of the teaching career.

“I kept coming back to teaching… I sort of thought about my morals and values like what I wanted to do for this world, and I loved the work I did with the college students at SRJC and SSU and I had a lot of fun,” Carlberg said.

In addition to teaching English, she is also advising the Academic Decathlon Team.

When it comes to English, Carlberg loves the writing process. While figuring out if she wanted to study English or Social Studies, she ultimately decided on English because of her love of creative writing. However, this does not take away from her passion for the Social Sciences. 

“I love the study of humans and I love anthropology, I love the study of humans and I love archaeology, that’s a subsection of anthropology” Carlberg mentioned.

Becky Drake is a returning teacher here at Casa Grande. She has taught at many different schools both local and abroad. 

“I taught school in

Egypt at an American school, in Alexandria, Egypt, three different times” said Drake.

Drake has taught at many different places and has had other careers as well.

“When I got out of college, I did teach for a little while at first, and then I went back to graduate school, and then I became a Navy officer for six years. And I was also an assistant business manager in one of the largest law firms in Chicago… It wasn’t until I moved back out to California that I thought I wanted to get back into teaching. [I] got some more teaching credentials, both in general education and ultimately in special education.” Drake s

aid. 

“I taught here for 12 years before, and then when I first retired. After I left Casa Grande in 2001, I went back to Southern California and was teaching in juvenile court schools for the Los Angeles Office of Education” said Drake. 

Although Drake has become a Navy officer, taught in other countries, and worked in other states, all has led her back to teaching at Casa Grande.