By Ellys Sun

SAN JOSE, CALIF. – As Joann Mauro celebrates her 32nd year teaching, we recap all of her achievements and favorite moments here at Silver Creek High!

Joann Mauro is a Physiology and Forensics teacher, and has been with Silver Creek for 32 years. Although she enjoys being in the classroom, it wasn’t something she had her eyes on at first. “The original plan was to be a dental assistant, but I knew I was supposed to do something else.” She said she was ultimately pulled to teaching with her love for biological sciences and incredible patience when working with children. Majoring in biology and minoring in physical sciences, Mauro was able to earn a degree and a teaching credential soon after. When asked if there’s any advice she’d like to give to future teachers, she says “Only do it if that’s what you really want to do because if you don’t really love teaching it’ll eat you up. Don’t do it if you just can’t think of anything else, and if you don’t like it, you’re doomed, you have to like kids.”

Through all the years, she has never dropped the engaging and dynamic teaching style. With labs ranging from pig dissections to burning nylon, students will rarely find themselves bored in Mauro’s class. When asked about experiences in her class, a current student, Andy Doan says: “…she always makes sure to use her own stories to keep students engaged and to see if any students can relate. Her sarcasm when teaching is very humorous and keeps me looking forward to coming to her class”. 

When asked about how she came up with the labs she simply said “Some of the lab ideas were labs I did in high school or college, most of them just come to me.” Her favorite moment in teaching was one year when her students always dared her to eat various things during labs, although it’s not advised, she saw this as an opportunity to prank them. “I once convinced my kids that I ate an earthworm, it was a rubber one. They were screaming, it was a great moment.” she says.