Mr. Posada prepares for class.- Photo by Holland Ramos

This past school year, Immaculata La Salle High school has been blessed with a number of new teachers for the 2021-2022 school year, Alejandro Posada being one of them.

Mr. Posada gets to wake up every morning, come to school, and teach high schoolers. While not many adults could ever imagine spending eight hours a day with teenagers after already graduating high school, Mr. Posada has always had a feeling he was going to become a teacher one day.

“It was always something in the back of my mind; but it wasn’t always something that I thought I would be doing when I was this young. I seem to remember wanting to teach when I was “semi-retired;” but I can tell you now that—just having taught for a few months—I would probably not have had the patience or energy at that point in my life, so I’m glad I entered the profession at this stage,” he explained.

Although teaching seemed to always be a calling of his, Mr. Posada felt a special vocation to teach religion. Religion has had a huge impact on his life, and he hopes to share the importance and benefits it can have for his students. 

“When you truly live a life of faith, it makes everything in life more interesting. I’ve told this to every single class this semester, and plan to tell it to every future class and student I teach, for the rest of my life. Deo volente (“God-willing”) I’ll have kids one day; if I’m blessed with children, I’ll tell them the same thing. I believe it to my core, based upon life experience and reflection,” he said.

In his adolescent years, his unfocused habits and way of living did not seem to match up to the ones of a teacher. Despite the lack of self-discipline Posada had as a teenager, it influences the person and teacher he is today.

“When I teach, I always try to keep in mind the experiences I had as a student, and remember what things helped me to excel, and what things made things more difficult for me. It’s not a ‘perfect solve,’ because no such thing exists. But it has definitely helped me to adapt in ways that (I hope) my first group of students appreciates.”