Sunny Hills High School, Fullerton
David Fenstermaker loves teaching — and it shows.
As activities director at Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, student participation and dance attendance have tripled. Fenstermaker also serves as an International Baccalaureate (IB) teacher. He also piloted the 5-Star Program, which tracks student engagement and helps identify ways to encourage more involvement — helping increase attendance in classes, at sporting events and school activities.
“The entire Sunny Hills administration team nominated him for this award,” said Sarah Murrietta, assistant principal, Instruction & Operations, at Sunny Hills. “Dave is one of the most selfless teachers I have worked with in the past 24 years in education. His dedication to the students is unmatched. He gives 110 percent to everything he does whether it be in the classroom teaching history or at an event that ASB is coordinating. He is what makes Sunny Hills such an amazing place.”
Fenstermaker started teaching in January 1998. After his first year of college, he started coaching football at Valencia High School in Placentia, which he had attended.
“All of the guys who had coached me were still there and they had been great teachers,” he said. “I had some amazing classroom teachers there as well. Those Valencia folks were so inspirational and formative while I was in school and coaching because they were essentially teaching me a second time — about how to be professional, what it meant to work with kids and how impactful you could really be.”
He taught College Prep World History at Valencia from 1998 to 2000. He was hired at Sunny Hills in 2000 and has been there ever since. At Sunny Hills, he’s taught Honors World History, US History (College Prep and AP), American Government, Economics, AP Psychology and IB History, and Leadership Tech class (ASB). He currently teaches AP Psychology, IB History and Leadership.
He said that to be an IB teacher means he gets to teach truly remarkable kids.
“These are kids who go on to some of the highest levels of learning in our country,” he said. “Kids who do way more math and science than I ever could. It means that we get to talk about super cool history stuff in great detail and have really thoughtful discussions about how and why things happened and their impact on us today. It means that I work with really talented teachers who teach kids of all levels, but also take these same kids — almost like a school within a school — and help guide them through a very well-rounded, very service-based curriculum that asks them to ask questions all the time. I wanted to be a teacher because I love history and teaching our IB History students allows me to talk about it with them — share that passion with them — in ways that few people get to.”
Beyond the day-to-day activities, Fenstermaker has worked with the Associated Student Body (ASB) to raise more than $40,000 for Breast Cancer Angels over the past eight years, according to the nomination essay submitted by Assistant Principal Heather Bradley.
“He has also brought numerous guest speakers to engage our staff and students on topics of leadership and school culture, further enhancing the positive environment he works to create,” according to Bradley.
Though full of accomplishments, Fenstermaker remains humble.
“My biggest accomplishments as a teacher? I don’t know. I feel like most of the things I would say are gonna be the kids’ accomplishments,” he said. “I have taught or coached kids who I think have gone to all of the Ivy League schools, Stanford, all the UCs. That’s not my accomplishment, it was theirs.
“I think we do a really good job maintaining the school’s culture and providing activities for any kid who wants to make memories at Sunny Hills, but trust me, our ASB kids do all that work. I don’t do very much but make sure they have what they need to succeed. I am happy I have taught for almost 28 years now. I have taught a bunch of kids who have gone on to teach, including a few at Sunny Hills. That’s been pretty great.”
By Jessica Peralta
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