Current Status: Alumni
Graduation Year: 1997
"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." - William Arthur Ward
In everything he does, PCC graduate Bill Lassiter (B.A. '97) strives to be a great teacher. He is currently teaching 4th grade at The Ontario Center School in the Cucamonga School District. In 1998, he began teaching at The Ontario Center School where he has held multiple positions of leadership, including Teacher-in-Charge, Grade Level Leader, Student Achievement Instructional Leader, Beginning Teachers Support and Assessment Program (BTSA) Support Provider, and Cucamonga Teachers Association Vice-President. He has also been named Teacher of the Year for The Ontario Center School in June of 2004, the Cucamonga School District in July of 2004, and San Bernardino County in September of 2004. Lassiter is now in the running for the California State Teacher of the Year award.
When asked how he feels about teaching, Lassiter says, "I love my job. In fact, I do not even consider it a 'job.' I get to do something so profound and important every single day. I get to mold, shape, and inspire children. Some people build houses. Others build bridges. Still others build relationships. I get to build the youth for the future." Lassiter believes that education is a three-part process including enhancing the learner by giving him/her the skills to solve problems in the world as we know it today, enhancing the learner by giving them knowledge of the forces that shape this world, and showing the learner ways to apply the knowledge and skills acquired and to pass them on. According to Lassiter, "Good teaching requires the teacher to get down on his students' level and look at life through their eyes."
Lassiter feels as if God has called him into the field of education and recognizes that his education at Hope gave him that start. " Hope helped me with a foundation that I use in the classroom today. That foundation is the understanding of the fact that my vocation can be, should be, and is, my mission field. I know every day I enter the classroom that I am doing God's work. I may be the only Jesus that my students ever see, so I need to make it count!"
"Hope helped me with a foundation that I use in the classroom today. That foundation is the understanding of the fact that my vocation can be, should be, and is, my mission field."
