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Griffin Transitions into HISP Community

After 32 years of teaching and serving the McClatchy and HISP communities, Mr. Wong, alongside Mr. Tagg and Frau Rice, stepped down from his teaching position after the 2016-2017 school year. This year, AP psychology teacher Mr. Griffin, and history teacher Mr. Limonoff are to split Wong’s classes. Griffin is to teach sophomore HISP students, while Limonoff will teach the freshmen and junior HISP classes.
This wouldn’t be the first time Griffin and Limonoff are working alongside one another at McClatchy. According to Mr. Griffin, the two began their teaching careers at CKM in the early 2000s. “I did my student teaching here in 2003 with Mr. Liminoff. He was my greeting teacher. Then I did a couple years at Sac High and came back to [McClatchy] in ’05 to start teaching psychology.” During this time, Griffin also observed some of Mr. Wong’s classes. Later, both Limonoff and Wong would reconnect over similar interests: playing golf together and taking baseball trips. The two recently went on a trip to the World Series together. The two plan on completing the Sacramento Century Bike Ride together in October, where the proceeds will benefit both the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Sacramento and, the Volunteers of America. It’s evident Griffin found both a family and home in McClatchy.
Initially, Griffin wasn’t interested in pursuing a teaching career. After graduating from San Jose State with a double major in behavioral science and clinical psychology, he began working in an operating room as an anesthesia technician and autotransfusionist from 1988 to 2004, when he began teaching. At the time, he planned to pursue clinical psychology as a career in hopes to become a marriage/family/ child counselor. Ultimately, teaching would allow Griffin to translate his passions into his career.
Griffin has been with McClatchy for 14 years now. Over the years, he’s continued to share his passion for psychology, now at the AP level. He claims that the strong will that the teachers possess, as well as the established sense of community has kept him grounded and has given him a feeling of home. He also felt that a new, refreshing opportunity awaited him when offered Mr. Wong’s teaching position. He’s always had an admiration for history, and took courses on Middle Eastern Studies in college. “From an academic standpoint, it’s a chance to teach something else that I have an interest in,” says Griffin. “Getting a chance to teach something new keeps my brain flexible and allows me to learn new things.” Griffin sees this teaching position as an opportunity to step out of his comfort zone.
His hope for the course is that the quality and depth of the course, remains constant. When asked if there were any contributions that he was eager to add to the HISP community or McClatchy as a whole, he was very modest and complimentary of Wong. “New contributions? I’m not sure. I just want to ensure that the students that I have are getting the same kind of quality education that they received from Mr. Wong.”