Teacher Spotlight: Diving Deeper with Donovan Warrecker

As you walk into room 102 you discover a classroom of creativity, exploration, and curiosity. On my way to the teacher’s desk I pass student projects, scientific diagrams, and artwork from the owner of the room. During our hour-long interview, I learned about his love for learning, teaching, and art, as well as his life story so far. One thing I’ve noticed almost every time I’ve heard him lecture or talked to him, is that he is a storyteller, and there will be no shortage of those in this article. Donovan Warrecker was born in 1977 at cottage hospital, and is a fourth generation Santa Barbara resident. He and his five older brothers all went to Santa Barbara High School (SBHS), and Warrecker has now been teaching here officially for seventeen years. Growing up with two parents who were both teachers and had six kids to take care of, money was always tight. Because of that, free activities were the go-to, like going to the beach, camping, or spending time at SBHS. Warrecker says it’s like he half grew up at this school, spending time being the ball boy for his other brothers or swimming in the pool. Being outside so much is what inspired him to be interested in life and how it works. “I’d go to the beach and then I’d come home, and on Sunday nights they’d have on PBS the nature series’ … I loved it, so I was instilled with a love of nature from a very early age.” In addition to nature, he was often deeply fascinated by biology. “I  remember I opened up one of my brother’s biology books when I was maybe in the fourth grade. It was the human anatomy part. I think I saw a diagram of the mouth and the digestive system, you know, the mouth and esophagus and stomach, and I was instantly fascinated by it.” Warrecker would also illustrate the diagrams, drawing inspiration to do so from his brother’s school biology assignments. “ We didn’t have a TV until, I want to say it was in the fifth grade. So we drew a lot, our whole family. It was just (to) occupy your time. (Are) you bored? Do art. If you’re not playing, yeah, you’re doing art.” 

Warrecker went to Monte Vista Elementary until fifth grade, when he transitioned to Adams Elementary and went on his first whale watching trip, which instilled in him his love for the ocean he already had even more. “The ocean is fascinating because it’s so big and it’s also so mysterious, right? There’s something intriguing about the unknown.” In addition to being immersed in learning about the world and art, he also played baseball through most of his younger years. Warrecker played pony baseball at Mackenzie Park, as well as playing for our team at SBHS, where his father was head coach for 43 years. As said by Warrecker he was a “Late bloomer,” and so didn’t do as well as he would have liked to, but he learned some valuable lessons from this time. “ I would say that I’m not a natural athlete, but I’m a hard worker, and so then my hard work has turned me into, or did turn me into you know, a successful athlete.” After SBHS he lived with his grandfather for two years while attending Allan Hancock College where he continued playing baseball. For his junior year, he was offered a ‘walk on’ spot on the baseball team at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), where he eventually was the starting catcher for the team. During this time Warrecker was majoring in Biological Sciences, and struggled with balancing classes and his sport.  

Balancing baseball in school was extremely difficult. “I remember we had finals, and the weekend before the finals we played a three game series at Sacramento State. We left on a Thursday, so I missed class Friday … I caught three straight games: Friday, Saturday, (and) Sunday. It’s an eight (or) nine hour bus ride to Sacramento, so Sunday after the game (I had) an eight hour bus ride back to Santa Barbara and had an 8:00 a.m. genetics final. Then I had principles of paleontology, principles of evolution, and then sensory ecology … I stayed up until, I wanna say three in the morning studying.” After graduating from USCB, Warrecker got a job offer through an assistant coach at the school to coach and play on an elite team in Sweden, as well as coach the junior team. In addition, he ran a six week baseball camp for kids aged from 14 – 17, and it’s here where he realized his passion for teaching. “ We were running through the forest in Sweden, and the kids were super into it. And I was like, god, this is really fun, and it’s rewarding.” After working in Sweden for a year, coming back to the U.S. for a year, and then coaching for another year, he got his teaching credential at Cal State Channel Islands. Warrecker’s student teaching was then completed at Carpinteria Middle School, and at SBHS while being supervised by his High School biology teacher, Irene Kasai. “ I remember at Cal State Channel Islands they asked what are the top three schools that you would like to teach at, you know, after you get your credential, and I just wrote Santa Barbara High, and that’s it. I’m like, man, if I don’t teach at Santa Barbara High … This is the only place I want to do it.” There wasn’t an opening for Warrecker’s position for a long time, until unfortunately a teacher fell, and he was thrown into the deep end as a long term substitute teacher halfway through the year. “ when you teach your whole day and then you have to prepare for the next day after school on the fly, and for the entire school year?  It was really hard. It was the most tired I’ve ever been in my life.

And you get burnout. It was like the biggest challenge of my life up until, you know that point for sure.” Warrecker taught as a long-term substitute for two years, until SBHS switched the science sequencing, and didn’t have a biology opening for him anymore. “ long-term sub pay is like sub pay, but you’re teaching like you’re a full-time teacher. It’s kind of a raw deal. So I moved out of my apartment. I moved into one of my brother’s garage, and I sold my truck, and I worked bartending.” Instead of trying to continue teaching at SBHS, he instead moved in with a cousin of his who lived in Basque country. “ He invited me to live with him in Basque country, so I moved to the Basque country in January. I was unable to work because of the work visa restrictions, but because I sold my truck and I had saved up a bunch of money from bartending, living in my brother’s garage rent free, I was able to live there and I just hike and surf. I was completely immersed, nobody spoke English. Like not one person.” It was a life-changing experience for Warrecker, and he didn’t buy a return ticket.

Like all good things, his time in the Basque Country came to an end. In June he got an email from the Santa Barbara Unified School District that the Marine Biology teacher Bill Kauth) had retired, leaving the position open for him. “ I came back at the end of June, and I wanna say within a week of being back I interviewed at the district office, and at the end of the interview they asked me do you have any questions? And all I could say was: Is this a full-time position?”  He taught CP Biology and CP Marine Biology courses until 2018, when he began solely teaching Marine Biology. 

“ It’s like the only class that I teach. I love the subject wholeheartedly. There isn’t a single part of it … it’s utterly fascinating. It’s endlessly fascinating, right? It just goes on and on. Everything that I observe and see brings up questions and I love interacting with students, you know, ’cause you get (to see) different ways of thinking.” In our interview, Warrecker went on to talk about what makes him love teaching “ I always tell the students (that) whenever teachers get positive feedback, ’cause you don’t get it on the regular, that’s the fuel to keep going. You need that to be like, okay, I am making a difference and this is worthwhile to do. Why are we doing this? Are we all gonna be marine biologists? You know, some students have gone on to major in marine biology and that’s great, but I want everyone to be in awe and amazement of the ocean. I want you to be like, it’s amazing, this thing that we have here, how incredible is this? Right? Just that alone. I want you to lead with a deep appreciation of how incredible the ocean is.” Donovan Warrecker has been teaching at SBHS officially (not counting his years as a long-term substitute, unfortunately) for 17 years, and has some thoughts about what he wants to do past his time teaching with his wife and kids.

 ”Between fall and winter, we’ll go to Hawaii, then full blown winter time, like February, March, (We’ll be in) Mammoth, you know, or January there. And then we’ll go back to Hawaii and yeah, just like something like that would be … the ultimate goal. That’s the goal. If you’re making bank off of your art … Even if I didn’t, I just, I taught all the way till retirement, that’s kind of the goal for after work.” You can see Warrecker’s art all over his classrooms, and you can even catch him working drawing between classes sometimes. It’s his dream to eventually become a full time artist, and I can totally see him achieving his goal, judging by the quality of his artwork. My final question to him was whether or not he’ll go back to basque country, “ A hundred percent.” he said. I left room 102 with new ideas of what I could do with my life. I left that room with a bucket-full of inspiration that I gathered from our conversation, which I could almost feel pouring out of him our entire time together. Mr. Warrecker is an extremely interesting man, and I’ve learned a lot from him, not just by taking his class. I walked out of room 102 with a different perspective on life, our oceans, and what can be done with art.