Lazaro Meza has worked at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Indio for nine years. Previously, he taught in the Coachella Valley Unified School District for four years. He currently teaches middle school science and Spanish and has also taught fifth grade and high school in the past.
As part of our series on Catholic school teachers in the Diocese, Meza sat down with the BYTE to tell us a little about himself and his life as a teacher at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School.
BYTE: What made you want to get into teaching in the first place? Was it something you always wanted to do growing up?
Meza: I always admired teachers when I was in school, and I always wanted to be one like them, I always wanted to be a helpful teacher if I became one. So it was always in my mind, just like well, if I become a teacher, I’ll do this, and I’ll do that, I’ll do this differently, I’ll be more engaging. Yeah, it’s always been there.
BYTE: What do you enjoy most about teaching?
Meza: I think the interaction with the students and seeing that light bulb on their faces when they build something in science, or understand the concept in Spanish, especially the non-Spanish speakers. And when I give when I give them a paper, and they’re like, “Oh, I get like 90% of it!” Just basically seeing the interaction with the students between themselves and the learning process.
BYTE: Yes, and then for science, there are some opportunities for hands-on learning and experiments for the students, right?
Meza: Yes, we just we just finished building some roller coasters with the sixth graders. And at the beginning, everybody was stressing out like, “I don’t know how to build this.” But then as they progress through it, they were more confident, to the point where at the end, they’re like, “Can we do this again sometime?” And I’m like, “Well, I thought you guys didn’t want to do it.” And they’re like, “Yeah, because we didn’t get it.” Now they’re experts, the roller coasters came out pretty nice.
The students definitely enjoy the experiments. They’re always asking me when’s the next lab that we have to do. The labs that I do, they’re a little bit out of the ordinary ... we do rockets, we do throwing things off the building, catapults, so it’s a little bit not so ordinary as some teachers do.
BYTE: That’s awesome. I’m sure it must have been hard during COVID to not be able to do all those things for your students.
Meza: Oh yeah, it was. But I guess once we got into it, I sent a few kits out to the students, so I would build kits for them and then I would just watch them from video and they’d be like, again, they’d be so excited. But yeah, it was difficult.
BYTE: Since you’ve taught a public school as well as the Catholic school, what would you say is the difference? What do you enjoy about teaching at a Catholic school?
Meza: Well, the main difference I would say is the familiarity with the students ... everybody knows everybody. I know every single student and I get to meet him at an early age. And then I talk to them, they get to know me a little bit more, and by the time they get to middle school they’re already excited, like Mr. Meza is doing this, Mr. Meza is doing that.
So I think we become a very great family. And then because I have them for three years, that familiarity just gets deeper and deeper and deeper. So that’s one of the things that I enjoy about teaching here, and also, the fact that it’s a Catholic school. I was raised Catholic, I was always with my mom at church every Sunday. So I like it.
In public schools, the classes are a little bit bigger, and there’s not so many familiar faces on a daily because you have different periods, you have different days, sometimes you don’t see the students, and then majority of the time you just see them for one year and then after that, they kind of forget about you or they go to different classes or different schools.
BYTE: The last question will just be to ask a bit about you. Do you want to share a favorite saint or Bible verse if you have one, and also what do you like to do in your free time?
Meza: I do a lot of outdoor activities; biking, hiking, trail riding, off-roading, reading, weightlifting. Anything that’s not inside a building.
For favorite saint... I wouldn’t necessarily say she’s my favorite saint. But my first year when I worked here, we do the saints. And then I was like, you know what, I’m not such an ordinary teacher, I’m always doing like skating, biking, crazy hair days, I play sports with the students and stuff like that, so I don’t really follow the norm of other teachers. So I was like, let me look for a saint that was a little bit out of the ordinary. So I Googled and I Googled and then I found St. Joan of Arc. And I liked the fact that she was a girl and she took it upon herself [to lead the French army]. And that she listened to her thoughts, saying that you go out there and you fight and then you will win. So I identify with her in the sense that I’m not ordinary, and usually if there’s an obstacle, I always go out there and try to solve it or ask for help.