Otto Corzo

As soon as students leave the room, Spanish teacher Otto Corzo sits down at his desk. Students’ assignments are piling up and it suddenly feels like there aren’t enough hours in a day for him to possibly do everything he needs to. Though, once more students walk in he is back on his feet with a smile on his face. His passion for teaching winning out over the tired haze over him. 

Corzo has been teaching for 14 year. Even over the six years he has been at MCHS he has noticed that this year he and his colleagues are feeling far more burnt out.

“We are not given the opportunity to have essential conversations about what is happening in the classroom or best practices,” Corzo states, “but we are assigned tasks tied to curriculum.” 

He may be burnt out from this year, but he stresses that it is not from teaching itself. Corzo has a passion for teaching and has never let feeling tired, stressed, and burnt out affect the way he teaches. 

“I am not burnt out from teaching,” he clarifies. “I love what I do. I am burnt out by the expectations and additional work that teachers are asked to complete on top of teaching.”

Corzo finds that one of the best ways he has to cope with these excessive expectations and burn out is talking to his colleagues both within MCHS and outside it. “We are not alone. It feels like we are but we are not. We are a community of educators working to best serve our students and the community.” 

Remembering this fact as well as always helping students pushes Corzo through his burnout and allows him to continue through his school year.