stephens-jonathan

I’m Mr. Stephens, English teacher at El Rancho (since 2008) and teacher in one way or another (since 2001) all the way from 6th  grade to college seniors (subjects include Creative Writing, Geometry, Multimedia, Newspaper, and Keyboarding). I earned my Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Cal State, Long Beach, where I later taught Creative Writing, Composition, and Literacy for Educators and was editor of RipRap Literary Journal.

My wife and I gave birth to our first daughter on my first day at El Rancho, so needless to say, I took a personal day. I love photography, website design, reading, writing young adult novels, reviewing books for TeenReads.com, eating Otter Pops, watching Lakers games, and being a father. My philosophy as a teacher is to encourage and challenge students to enjoy the learning process, which is why one of my greatest joys is hearing and seeing that they’re engaged with AND learning the material. All that said, I’m fairly certain I’m the only teacher at El Rancho whose birth country no longer exists and dare someone to prove me otherwise.