Meet Mr. Art Castañeda, the fútbol enthusiast.

He is a new Spanish teacher here a Lincoln High School. He has been teaching around different schools in San Jose Unified School District.

This year will be his 22nd year teaching. He started at Gunderson High School for about sixteen years, then the last four years at Burnett Middle School as an instructional coach.

Mr. Castañeda attended San Jose State University and earned a degree in international business administration, San Francisco State for his teaching credentials, and University of San Diego for his master degree.

Castañeda decided to come to Lincoln High School because, besides knowing some teachers here, he always believed that Lincoln was amazing and “inspirational” high school.

Although he first thought about going into the business industry during his college years, he struggled to find a career. He was told by someone to maybe try teaching. He decided to start a teaching career because it would allow him to still continue coaching soccer after school and it’d be something he’d really enjoy doing. 

He said that even during college, he felt good every time he would be able to help someone whenever they couldn’t understand something. Helping others also factored into his decision for going into teaching. So far, Mr. Castañeda says that Lincoln has been great and he is very glad to be here.

Mr. Castañeda advises all high school students to “participate in extracurricular activities like sports teams, school clubs, and leadership, because although many of the memories we hold onto for many years come from our classes, what I remember most from high school are the special events during sports seasons, club field trips, and summer camps.”

The interview ended with Mr. Castañeda quoting Kurt Lewin: “Learning is more effective when it is an active rather than a passive process.”