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Emily
Swoboda
English I Honors
Quincy Scott
English II Honors
Ken
Billings
English III Advanced Placement
Victoria
McCormick
English IV Advanced Placement
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Emily Swoboda
English I Honors e-mail webpage |
While she isn't a Texan
by birth, Mrs. Swoboda has lived in Texas most of her life.
She is a two-time graduate of Texas A&M University
in College Station, Texas, where she earned a B.A.
in English and an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction.
Mrs. Swoboda began teaching at Waller High School,
located just outside of Houston, as she completed her graduate studies
at A&M. After teaching in Waller, she moved to San
Antonio where she taught in Judson ISD. Now, Mrs.
Swoboda is very excited and privileged to be a part
of the Communications Arts High School faculty. This
year, she is the sponsor for the Creative Writing Club.
In her spare time, Mrs.
Swoboda enjoys spending time with her husband and daughter, taking
photographs, quilting, reading, visiting with family, organizing
anything in sight, and relaxing. Some
of her favorite books are: Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Shakespeare Bats
Cleanup, Fahrenheit 451, The Poisonwood
Bible,
and To
Kill a Mockingbird. Some
of her
favorite authors are Willa Cather, Sandra Cisneros, Sue Monk
Kidd, and William Shakespeare.
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Quincy
Scott
English II Honors e-mail webpage |
A native of San Antonio,
Quincy Scott is a teacher with seventeen years of experience. He
has worn many hats in his years in the classroom, but has always
taught English. Quincy first became interested in books as a child,
when his father, Frank, an avid library borrower, would frequently
bring Quincy and his brother along to roam the library shelves.
Although he loves the vast array of information at your fingertips
today online, Quincy still confesses love for a good book.
Reading and writing are an important part of why Quincy teaches.
He most enjoys communicating, and helping his students communicate
better.
Quincy graduated in 1990 from Texas State University with a bachelors
of science degree in education, focusing on kineseology and English.
His first teaching position was at Southwest High School, where
he taught English and coached swimming and boys' basketball, and
volunteer coached softball and girls' basketball.
In 1999 Quincy moved to Keystone School, where he taught high
school English, coached JV basketball, and coached middle school
softball and soccer.
In 2001 Quincy came to Communications Arts, where he has happily
taught both freshman and sophomore English. Quincy still loves
sports, and looks forward to his son's future little league games.
Quincy's philosophy of teaching is that it is very akin to parenting.
He feels his job is a partnership with parents to nurture each
child to become a thoughtful adult, a responsible citizen, an independent
thinker and a lifelong learner. Quincy has been lucky enough to
have several wonderful teachers in his life, along with two outstanding
parents, and he feels honored and humbled to have a career devoted
to helping young people blossom.
When not at school, Quincy treasures his family time. He shares
a house with his lovely wife Katie, a teacher at John Paul Stevens
High School, and his amazing son Anderson, who is a year old but
already has impeccable literary taste. The back yard is patrolled
by Margo, a scruffy dog of sweet temperament and uncertain pedigree.
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Kenneth
Billings
English III Advanced Placement
e-mail webpage |
Ken
Billings, husband of one and father of three, was born in California
in
1973; graduated from UTSA with a B.A
in History in 1995; started teaching at John Jay High school in
1997; married in 2000; received his M.A. in English from UTSA in
2003; became an adjunct professor at Wayland Baptist University
in 2004; arrived at Comm Arts in 2007: his three sons were born
in 2001, 2003, and 2005—those are the dates. However, there
must be more to a person than a string of years. For Ken Billings,
these are the things that matter most: his faith in God; his love
for his wife, children, and the rest of his extended family; his
addiction to reading (“I am constantly reading: theology,
literature, history, espn.com”); his devotion to the Spurs
(“Go, Spurs, Go!”); his passion for politics (“W!”);
and his dedication to improving as a teacher. “Let all things be done decently and in order”:
in Ken Billings’s life, this idea must become part of his
daily agenda. Between juggling family life, high school teaching,
college teaching, and church activities, very little time remains
for “free time.” But, in that time that exists that
some call “free,” Ken enjoys movies and a few television
shows (“Lost”); taking long walks on the beach (“No,
wait, there is no beach where I live, scratch that!”);
and…well, there is nothing much after that. Playing with
his boys and enjoying time with his wife, pretty much sums up
the week. As a teacher, Ken believes that if a teacher truly, really,
deeply loves what he or she teaches, and that love radiates and
flows out of every lecture, lesson, and assignment, then the
students will notice, and hopefully they will be able to catch
some of that passion, grasp some of the love, and take hold of
some of the lessons about literature and writing and grow as
a student, citizen, and person. back
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Victoria
McCormick
English IV Advanced Placement
Winner
of the 2007 Sue German Award at the New Jersey Writing Project
Convention for excellence in education
e-mail
webpage
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Victoria
McCormick started out wanting to be a writer and ended up a teacher
of writing, proving that those who can both do and teach. She has
been teaching for 29 years and has been in the Northside School
District for 23 years, 16 at John Jay High School and 7 at Health
Careers High School before moving to Communication Arts in August
of 2005. She was the English department coordinator at both Jay
and HCHS, is a New Jersey Writing Project in Texas trainer, and
for several years was a reader for the AP Language and Composition
Test. In 2002-2003, Mrs. McCormick was awarded the Trinity Prize
for Excellence in Teaching. She has also been an officer in TCTE/LA,
the state professional organizations for English and language arts
teachers, and SAACTE, the San Antonio affiliate for TCTE/LA.
Mrs. McCormick was born
in El Paso, Texas, but spent most of her life living in various
places along the West Coast where her sailor father was stationed
by the U.S. Navy. A graduate of Texas Tech University, she received her master’s degree
in English from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her writing has been
published in UTSA’s literary magazine Cactus Alley and one of her poems
placed first in the Poets on the River Contest.
Although reading and
writing are Mrs. McCormick’s main interests, she also
enjoys traveling, hiking, and camping with her husband, Larry.
Together they have visited just about every national park west
and/or north of Texas, including Big Bend, Pikes Peak, Yellowstone
Park, and Mt. Rushmore. However, the highlight of their camping
adventures has been their trip to Guadalupe State Park where
they climbed the strenuous switchbacks up to Guadalupe Peak,
the highest spot in the state of Texas. She and her husband
have five children, ranging in age from 35 to 17, and she hopes
one day to share her love of the outdoors with her seven grandchildren.
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