As the 2024-2025 school year begins, many new teachers have joined the Arcadia High School (AHS) community. Mrs. Lillian Diaz is one of many teachers joining us this year as an addition to our English Department teaching freshman English.
Mrs. Diaz is an experienced teacher, as this year will be her 12th year teaching. She has been teaching since Sept. 2013 but this will be her first year at AHS. Mrs. Diaz has spent the last eight years of her career at Gabrielino High School (GHS) in San Gabriel.
“Honestly, the opportunity presented itself at the right time…it has always been a dream of mine to teach at Arcadia High School since this is where I graduated from. The teachers I had here were the inspiration behind my own desire to be a teacher, and I have always wanted to be part of this amazing legacy of this school and district,” said Mrs. Diaz when asked what prompted her to transfer from GHS.
While at AHS, Mrs. Diaz tries to offer a new perspective and teaching experience to her students. Mrs. Diaz believes that her strong promotion of a classroom atmosphere where students feel like they belong makes her class unique. She hopes that in her class, students are looking forward to learning and discovering new aspects of English instead of treating it as a mandatory, mundane task.
“I would say my favorite part of teaching would be when kids discover something new or exciting that they like about reading, especially for the kids who say they don’t like reading,” said Mrs. Diaz.
In her class, she tries to limit lectures to the first 15 minutes of class before her students work in groups or start the assignments on their own.
“I like to let them start the work in class so that if they run into any problems or have questions they can ask in class,” said Mrs. Diaz. Usually if students stay on task, most of the work can be completed in class. But they learn fairly quickly that if they procrastinate, the work starts to pile up very rapidly.”
Mrs. Diaz believes that organization is one of the most important parts of being a student.
“One of the best skills they can learn is how to be organized,” said Mrs. Diaz. “Getting a planner or agenda is a must to stay organized in life.”
She also puts a heavy emphasis on managing as well as prioritizing chunks of time for specific tasks.
“For time management, I would say it is helpful to color code or highlight different things that they have to take care of,” Mrs. Diaz explained.“For more pressing matters, they should use more extreme colors like red and for things that can be taken care of later, I would suggest using a calmer color, like blue.”
Outside of the classroom, Mrs. Diaz is a puzzle enthusiast. It’s evident when you enter her classroom, as the complex jigsaws are hung up all over the room. She is clearly a fan of solving problems, as she also enjoys doing escape rooms. When not busying herself with puzzles, she likes to bake; however, she says that it is hard with taking care of two young kids at the same time. She also loves books, and one of her favorites is The Great Gatsby.
