Pinole Valley High’s head of the health academy, otherwise known as William Heyward (Mr. Heyward), is a big part of the academic structure of the school. We had many questions to ask just to see what it is like to be Mr. Heyward for a day.

Some background information about Mr. Heyward is he loves teaching. He has always had an interest in teaching others.

During college, he went to New Zealand to study sea lions and the “running mechanics in relation to sex and male age classes.” In other words, he studied how sea lions run and the evolution behind it. And their locomotion. He got his masters in marine science. When he came back from New Zealand there weren’t many jobs available so he became a substitute teacher in Berkeley and later found a spot at Pinole Valley. He interviewed for a spot and got accepted and has been working here ever since.

He gave us a little summary of his morning. Mr. Heyward wakes up around 5-6 am and simply starts his day. He eats yogurt and granola every morning on weekdays before work. And gets to the school around 7 am so he can get a head start and prepare for his first period. He answers emails or sets up what they are doing in the class. His freshman classes are first period and his sophomore classes are fifth and sixth. He has two prep periods, one more than other teachers. IHis freshman classes do mostly worksheets and labs and some online work in Canvas. They start off the period with a warm-up on Canvas and have a class discussion about what they are going to talk about. The warm-ups are mostly about the previous day’s work.

After his freshman classes are his prep periods. During his prep periods, he sets up things to do in his sophomore classes. Or gets things ready to go on their next field trip. Next is lunch. His classroom is open for students to enjoy their lunch, spend time with friends, or ask for help with his work. Usually, the classroom is full of upperclassmen but is still welcoming to the freshman students.

During his time at lunch he eats, grades or answers students questions. After lunch, he then has his sophomore classes. The tenth work is a complete online course so the computers in his room are mostly for the sophomores. At the end of the school day, he tends to stay about an hour after school grading work, helping students, or just simply cleaning up around the class.

On the way home, he will either go to the store to run errands or go straight home. When he gets home he usually cooks dinner and watches TV or plays video games. His favorite shows he watches on his free time is science fiction or sports channels. He goes to bed not too late around 9:30 pm. So far he has been working at Pinole Valley for about 6 years and so far he loves teaching here and hopes to continue working here.