You won’t catch Ojai Valley School head of campus Lars Kuelling in his office during A block anymore; he has jumped back into teaching, taking on 16 students in his new Government class.
He is eager to get back to teaching after two years off. During those two years, he focused on improving the campus, classes, and the OVS experience.
The world is buzzing with excitement about this upcoming election, which is great to bring into the classroom and inspire the students.
“It is a lot of fun as we get to talk about ways to hold civil discussions, understand bias, and look for relatively unbiased sources of information,” Mr. Kuelling said. “And we get to talk about individual values and how they may inform decisions.”
Mr. Kuelling grew up in Virginia. He attended the University of Virginia for his undergraduate degree and the University of New Mexico for graduate school. After college, he wanted to be a minister and serve overseas.
“I actually worked in a program for street children in Brazil during college and thought I wanted to do something like that.”
Mr. Kuelling has always loved working with children and helping shape and nurture communities. When he got his first teaching job, he worked at the Maryland food bank. He taught at five independent schools before OVS and taught K-12th grade classes.
“It can be a little tricky to balance being a teacher and a Head of School, such as when I had to prep for a unit exam for class and a Board meeting at the same time last week, but it is all worth it!” Said Mr. Kuelling.
On the other hand, Cindy Carver has just started her teaching career. Mrs. Carver started teaching last year as a part–time learning center aid and now works as a full-time learning center and language assistance teacher.
Mrs. Carver attended UCSB and has her bachelor’s degree in literature and a master’s in clinical psychology. After college she worked at a residential treatment facility for children with special needs in Santa Barbara.
After working as a social worker for 15 years, she became a stay-at-home mom for her two kids, Caleb Carver, OVS class of 2023, and Danika Carver, OVS sophomore. Now, 15 years later, she has started teaching.
“When I was a kid, I always thought being a teacher would be super cool.”
She has worked at OVS for two years and loves getting to know the students and participating in the outdoor education program.
“The kids in the learning center are in there because they have some learning differences, that doesn’t mean they’re not as smart as any other kid. It just means they learn a little bit differently.” said Mrs. Carver
Mr. Alvarez has been teaching at OVS for 17 years. He was originally brought to teach journalism but was then asked if he would teach world history as well.
Mr. Alvarez taught world history for several years, then created and started teaching AP world history. He then moved on to teaching Humanities.
“I came up with the idea that there was too big a gap between regular world history and APUSH,” said Mr. Alvarez
Alvarez grew up in Coachella Valley, California, the youngest of two brothers. He now has two daughters and two granddaughters. He went to Cal State Fullerton as a music major, but after one year, he decided to change his major to physical education. He ultimately graduated after five years with a political science major.
This year, he is circling back to World history and taking on an exciting class of sophomores, most of whom were his students in Humanities last year.
Wish these teachers luck as they jump into learning how to balance their new schedules this year.
“You’ve got to want to be a good teacher,” said Mr. Alvarez
And these teachers want it.