Hector Zambrana

About Me

Hi! My name is Hector and I am an English Teacher at the Heritage School.

I enjoy playing guitar for my children, Darian and Alixandra (I'm pictured here with my daughter Alix), reading, writing, and working with technology. I used to play handball on my high school team and I still enjoy it once in a while. Later in life, I fell in love with basketball, which I played in college and have coached a bit on the high school level. I play whenever I can.

Born to Spanish-speaking parents, I learned to speak English at the age of 5 upon entering kindergarten. Later in college, I learned to read and write in Spanish as well. I have served as a translator on many occasions in various educational settings.

I love to teach and work with young people. I hope to do it as long as I can and to be the best teacher I can possibly be. I look forward to my continued education as a teacher and student.

If you'd like to see some of my work, please click here.
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Ms. Webster's Words of Wisdom

8 more days til Regents

There are only 8 days of school left until Regents starts. Just sayin'.

If you're about to take Regents, you have two options: freak out, or, don't freak out.

I used to like having finals when in high school, in the same way that I liked it when the electricity went out for no reason, in the way that I liked snow days, in the way that I liked big, dangerous, important events: they gave me a break from the soul-crushing routine of every day.

So of course I was a LITTLE freaked-out, because tests are tests. But mostly I was excited to get a break from the routine of high school, the getting-up-early-every-damn-day, seeing-a-bunch-of-people-I-didn't-trust-or-enjoy, eating-the-disgusting-cafeteria-food, doing-all-that-boring-work, killing-homework routine. During finals, I didn't have any of that nonsense. I even had a brilliant excuse to get out of doing chores, baby-sitting my little brother, and even eating dinner with my family (which at 16 seemed like an incredibly tedious task). Instead, I retreated into monastic study, at the table in my room I had specially set up.

The study space set up was an important component of studying for finals. About a week before finals started, I moved a table into the middle of my bedroom. I cleaned the surface carefully. I got a desk lamp with a clamp and a hinged arm that I screwed onto the edge of the table. I got a straight-backed chair and a pillow for support. I stacked my textbooks neatly in one corner of the table. I stacked my class notebooks and binders in the other corner. I acquired two sharpened pencils with good erasers and two pens, one blue and one black, and four highlighters in different colors. These writing instruments I inserted into an empty jar and positioned the jar next to the notebooks. I got a big bottle of water and a bag of pretzels for reinforcement. Then I put on my favorite album (which at the time was Pearl Jam, I believe), and locked my bedroom door. Let the storm come. I was ready.

-Ms. Webster

Read more on Ms. Webster's page