Alizandro Barraza Mendoza, known as Mr. Z to his students, is a student teacher here at Sierra Pacific High School. He works with Brian Dull in Honors English 2, Standard English 2 and AP Language and Composition. Students find him to be a helpful and engaging teacher.
Grecia Zueta-Ramirez, a sophomore in English 2 Honors, said: “Something I like about Mr. Z is that he always tries to make his lessons fun and interactive for students, so it doesn’t just feel like another assignment in class.”
Dull notes that he “brings new ideas and a fresh approach to our lessons and discussions.”
Barraza Mendoza has been working very hard in his college career. He spent four years at UC Santa Barbara for his Bachelor’s degree. He did French language training at Middlebury College in the summers of 2019 and 2021, and in 2023, he started his Master’s degree at NYU. He finished this in a year and a half in 2024.
Barraza Mendoza explained how his inspiration to be a teacher was because of his teachers growing up.
“As a kid, I had really good teachers, but not many friends growing up. I always liked going to school because of teachers who made it a positive environment.”
While his ultimate goal is to become a professor, Barraza Mendoza believes that working with younger students at this point in his career would bring lots of good opportunities for him.
During his student teaching, he began by being in a French class, and now he is helping with Dull’s English classes. He plans to focus on English, however he would like to teach French at some point in his career.
Continuing on, he says, “I have a history background, so if I become a professor, I would be a history teacher.”
Barraza Mendoza loves encouraging students through games in class. One of his favorite memories here at Sierra Pacific was when he had the class play Just One: a game where you associate only one word with a vocabulary word. Even students who are not usually enthusiastic in class had fun. Barraza Mendoza is passionate about bringing fun into the classroom, and moments like these are evidence that there should be more fun in education spaces, even for high school students.
He recalls another fond memory of Sierra Pacific: the cats, who like to roam around outside the window in Dull’s class.
Mr. Dull reflects on how having Barraza Mendoza in class has reignited his spark for teaching, “Working with a new teacher definitely makes me want to be more creative and try new things. It encourages me to reexamine my practice and strengthen any previous limitations. Having new eyes and fresh approaches is always intriguing as you get to learn new things and be adaptable.”
Some things Barraza Mendoza enjoys outside of school are taking photos, practicing film photography and listening to music. He has a goal to listen to 365 albums this year, and he incorporated this passion into his introduction with his students. He had everyone write their favorite album on a sticky note, so that he could consider adding them to his list. He plans to listen to these student-chosen albums over the summer.
