Being the new kid on the block is never easy, but it’s a little easier when you’ve been around the block a few times. New English teacher, John Bruce comes to Alisal with 12 years of experience and is ready for his newest chapter.
Bruce was born in Southern California and grew up in Modesto. He graduated from UC Santa Cruz, where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in literature. Due to the poor economy at the time, he decided to teach abroad. “I saw an opportunity to get a certification to teach English abroad,” he said. “I earned the certification and applied to a job teaching English to corporate executives in Ecuador.”
Teaching high school was not his first choice. “I actually started teaching high school English by accident,” he said. “My girlfriend (now wife) at the time was teaching Kindergarten in a K-12 international school in Quito, and they needed a 10th grade English teacher. I interviewed for the job with no experience, and was offered the position after the person ahead of me decided to leave the country. It was a trial by fire kind of professional experience that was invaluable to me.” By the end of the year Bruce discovered he loved teaching.
He is not only a teacher, but also a husband and a father to Anne, who is one year old. The way he balances his work life along with his family life is by setting goals for himself, “I set work goals for myself and then I meet those goals and then I just forget about work, even though I have more work to do,” Bruce said.
Music is something that has been a big part of Bruce’s journey. He is a songwriter and plays instruments like the drums and vocals. His music interests started from a young age where he became a part of a couple bands, “I’ve been making music since I was a kid, but my first “real” band was a punk band called Hetch Hetchy,” Bruce said.
The band unfortunately fell apart due to some issues that two of the members faced. However, Bruce’s music career did not end there. “I started a group with a few other guys when I was about twenty and we called ourselves “Bonilla, Bruce, and Durr.” Our big success was opening for Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, which was fun.” The band was not seen to be evolving much, which became a sign for Bruce to leave it all and move to Portland, Oregon, to give songwriting a chance and be able to publish and promote his music.
During his time in Portland, he attended Portland Community College. Youtuber Drew Monson, who collaborated with Shane Dawson covered one of his songs named, “We Only Walk This Long Road Once,” which can be found on Spotify along with many of his other songs. “It was really fun because it’s a trip hearing someone else record your music,” Bruce said. “Finally, by the time I transferred to UCSC in my twenties, I started a band called Redwood Fur and we played at places like Moe’s Alley and The Crepe Place. Today, I play drums here and there in a band called The Katherine Lavin Band.” After he started teaching, his songwriting was reduced, but he continues to write from time to time.
Besides music, journalism is a major factor that connects with Bruce. “I am a believer in the First Amendment and its fundamental role in maintaining a healthy democracy,” he said. Journalism is something that Bruce loves teaching and is on his list of interests as well since it has impacted his songwriting in a way. “What I liked about it was that it was very fast-paced and stories changed so quickly,” he said. “Current events have always fueled my songwriting, and learning about the art of writing about them in real time caught my interest. In my songwriting days a lot of my songs were kind of political in nature and so following what’s happening in real-time around us has been a really effective way of tapping into storytelling for me.”
Bruce taught Yearbook and Journalism for two years at Rancho San Juan, but also helped students at his school in Quito to start their own magazine that they called “The Spectacle.” He would like to explore new ways to learn about, advocate for, and teach responsible journalism in the future.
He is currently teaching English Language Arts to freshmen and sophomores. The way he builds a positive environment is by treating his students equally, “Treating everyone like people, appropriately, in a human way,” Bruce said. Another thing he has is a “Gratitude Wall,” where he has his students write down what they’re grateful for on his classroom’s whiteboard. “I think he’s a really hard-working teacher and that he really tries to help his students with their education and he wants to provide the best for the future,” freshman Bryan Vargas said.
He describes the most significant challenge in today’s education system as social fragmentation caused by social media, “People are quick to escape into their bubble without remembering that we’re all connected,” Bruce said. “If someone gets hurt we should care about that person even though they’re not our blood.”
Bruce’s favorite thing about Alisal is the positive environment students and staff provide. “I like it! It is cool that so many of our staff are former Trojans themselves. Alisal seems like a place with strong community values and a diverse array of interests. People have really good manners and teachers are really fun here,” he said.
