As AP Seminar students entered December of the 2022-2023 school year, students said goodbye to one of their favorite teachers, Mr. Maldonado, who was going on paternity leave for a few months. Unaware that he would not be coming back any time soon, AP Seminar students were confused about what happened to this teacher who they loved and enjoyed having.

“Maldonado was a very entertaining teacher and could really grasp the class’ attention. I felt really sad when I found out that he wasn’t coming back,” explained Sarah Martin, a Sophomore AP Seminar student. 

Many AP seminar students shared the same feeling, like the class was not the same after Maldonado left. For a while, the students had a long-term substitute teacher, who had not yet gotten all the certifications to teach the class. This proved to make it a bit more difficult to get learning done in the class for students.

“I would get more distracted, and the rest of the students would not get work done with the long term sub,” admitted Tanesah Akter, another Sophomore AP Seminar student.

In January, the AP seminar students, to their dismay, were told that their teacher would not be coming back from his paternity leave.

“We had our hopes up of him coming back obviously, but he did not come back and just left us with zero answers. He isn’t obligated to tell us, but it did strain us a bit since we felt like we got ghosted,” explained Akter.

After this unfortunate news was told to the students, they were soon given a new teacher, Mr. Wellington, who is a history teacher at Park View that had gotten certified to teach AP seminar a few years back. However, Wellington was a bit surprised to find that he would be teaching the class during the 2022-2023 school year. 

“It was only me who was certified to teach AP Seminar, so they kinda need a certified person to be in charge of the class, so really I was the only one in the building to be able to do that,” said Wellington. 

To get certified, Wellington took a certification course in the summer, which consisted of a week-long class lasting about four to five days, eight hours a day. Although there was a sudden and short notice to becoming an AP seminar teacher this year, Wellington generally didn’t really mind having to step up and teach the class.

“I was pretty interested in it in the first place. When I went to the training for it a few years back, jumping in it for about two and a half weeks now, it’s hard to grasp on it since I wasn’t really mentally expecting to do it this year. But otherwise, I did want to do it down the road, so being in there is somewhat enjoyable,” stated Wellington.

AP Seminar students enjoy having Mr. Wellington as a teacher for the time he’s been there so far, agreeing Wellington is a solid teacher.

“From the first day he seemed confident about everything and knew what to do, so I’d say he is pretty good at teaching the class,” claimed Josh Castillo, a Junior AP Seminar student.

Other AP Seminar students also share this liking of their new teacher, thinking he is quite an improvement from their long term substitute teacher.

“He was definitely a slightly better upgrade from our long term substitute. Our sub was not terrible at all, but they did not have the components to teach correctly,” said Akter.

Although AP Seminar students do enjoy having Wellington as their new teacher, and think he is a great fit for the position, they do miss Mr. Maldonado and his teaching style. 

“I looked forward to his class; it was a super fun environment, and I actually learned stuff,” explained Amos Doussey, another Sophomore AP Seminar student who admitted that Maldonado was the main reason he joined the class, so seeing him go was very unfortunate to him. 

Even though some students have preferences on who is their favorite teacher, some students say they don’t really have a preference between both teachers. Both teachers have their own unique ways of teaching, with Maldonado more into class discussions and debates, and Wellington into more formal classwork, but good at guiding the class.

“I don’t really have a preference between both teachers; they’re both very great teachers. I wish Maldonado didn’t just leave us though,” stated Frank Portillo, a Junior AP Seminar student.

Although their new teacher is great, students are left wondering where Maldonado went, and they do miss him very much. However, they do hope that he is doing well, and it is benefitting him and his family.

“I hope that Maldonado’s new job is a better fit for him and his family, and is better benefitting his family,” stated Sarah Martin.