Staff: Benny Choi

Interviewer: Kenneth Gelasio 

Interviewee: Benny Choi

Interviewer: How is your personal life affected/influenced by your work?

Choi: Well... I think working as a substitute teacher has been..it's been great! And I really appreciate how, as a sub, it's flexible. I think it's cool that, when I'm not on a long term assignment, I can pick, "Ok I want the next couple of days off and go visit my friends in Santa Barbara" or I wanna go fish or do something. I have the freedom to be able to do that. Um, and to add on to that, I think it's pretty cool that there are opportunities as a sub to study, to do research on things that I like to do, even while I'm at school. Whether it's at lunch or during a free period. I think that's really nice and I think another part was... I guess being able to participate in some of the sports, uh I really appreciate running with cross country or playing badminton in the spring. I think that keeps me healthy and kinda counts as work sometimes, so yeah.

Interviewer: Uh, so why did you choose to work in the education field?

Choi: I think that's something that I guess worked out for me. Uh... I think it was the direction that life pushed me in after I graduated from college. I didn't think that I'd be an educator. I enjoyed doing things outdoors. I enjoyed scuba-diving. I studied aquatic biology, but coming out of college, it was different, a lot of the things I was looking to do, didn't work out and uh I guess I previously enjoyed working at summer camps or teaching abroad. So, I think education was something that worked out. Something that has been working out so far. There's definitely a lot of uncertainty and things I'm not sure about, but I think I'm enjoying it a lot.

Interviewer: Where did you grow up?

Choi: Well... I grew up in Daly City. I went to a lot of the schools that students here went to. Junipero Serra, Westborough, El Camino, and after that I went to Santa Barbara for four years. I think growing up, there's not a whole lot. I did sports, I did band while I was at high school. Uh, I got to travel a bit when I was in college, but I think there's still a lot of growing up for me and lots of learning experiences.

Interviewer: How does your experiences as a teacher compare to your experiences as a student?

Choi: I think that's... it's really different. Mmm the perspective and the difficulty of explaining why something is important. Explaining the relevance of something is something that I didn't understand as a student myself. Typically, I wouldn't be paying attention in class as a student and may have fallen asleep or been on my phone. From the observing side, it's definitely frustrating and definitely disappointing to see and um as a sub, I think it's... I'm in between. I have the option to sit back and ignore everything or I also have the option to make a little effort to observe and apply the things that I see other teachers do, which has been really nice with all the opportunities that I've been presented so far.

Interviewer: Is this the career that you chose, or the career that you wanted growing up?

Choi: Uh...definitely not. When I was younger, I wanted to be a farmer or I wanted to be a fisherman or like a researcher. I think it's really cool because if I look at it, I know that with education, with how school gives you summer off, gives you the winter off, and how school gets out at 3. I know I have the time to do the things that I wanna do. Like fishing or camping or hiking. I can still do that! I can still hang out with friends. I'm not swamped with work right now and I do hope that, in the future it continues to work out like that.