When Sierra Pacific opened its doors in 2009, teacher Allen Blanchard was one of the first to be an educator on campus. To this day, Blanchard is still loving being a Golden Bear. Blanchard was also the first football coach ,he is now coaching Sierra Pacific’s wrestling team while also teaching all grades. Blanchard teaches Intermediate wood along with Advanced Wood. The classes are based on grade and skill level.
Blanchard’s journey to becoming an educator consisted of wanting to be a coach because he had coaches who inspired him to pursue a teaching career.
Blanchard graduated from Hanford High Alumni in 1986 then graduated from Fresno State with a degree in Industrial Arts. Blanchard then taught at Hanford West for eight years before moving over to Sierra Pacific.
Besides being an educator, Blanchard is also a father. Blanchard has three daughters, all of whom have their master’s degrees. Two of his daughters are educators, and the other is in finance.
Originally, Blanchard wanted to teach a class about architecture and drafting. Even though he isn’t, Blanchard expressed that he still enjoys teaching Woodshop very much.
“I love teaching woodshops,” Blanchard said. “It gives me a chance to talk to students and give them a hard time..but also the students know it is all love. So I get to be me, sarcasm and all.”
Blanchard mentioned he coaches outside of the classroom which includes the wrestling team at Sierra Pacific. Blanchard became an educator and a coach all in one.
“I wanted to be a coach and had several of my coaches tell me that teaching would be a great career,” he said. “I just kind of pursued it once I was in college and started coaching wrestling when out of class in the afternoons.”
Francisco Rocha, a student who had Blanchard his freshman year, voiced that Blanchard is a very playful yet stern teacher.
“Blanchard is a playful teacher with a fun sense of humor, yet he was stern when he needed to be with his students.”
Jerome Landeros, a former student of Blanchard, expressed that he felt very comfortable while in Blanchard class, which is something he looks for in any classroom environment.
“I felt very comfortable in Blanchard’s class. He has never given me any reason to feel otherwise, he made me feel welcomed. It was always funny to me how sarcastic he’d be with the class”
Blanchard mentioned that another one of the many reasons he wanted to become an educator is because of the amount of educators who come from his father’s side of the family.
“I come from a large family of educators on my father’s side. We once had a family reunion, and out of 30 people, 24 of them were in the education field.”
A fun fact about Blanchard is that he has a dog named Madison. Blanchard’s dog, Madison, is named after the Giants great Madison Baumgartner. The SF Giants are Blanchard’s favorite Baseball team.
Blanchard still enjoys teaching at Sierra Pacific just as much as he did since it was established. Blanchard plans to always continue being himself such as having a sense of humor with his students along with giving them a hard time out of love.
Blanchard is set on bringing up his students and setting them up for success. When needed, Blanchard gives out one piece of advice: “Always keep going after goals you set, if you hit roadblocks along the way find a way to get around them, through them or underneath them.”
