Mr. Langley started teaching English 9, 10, and 11 at Santa Fe High School in 2018. He also started the hiking club. 

Mr. Langley is from Kalamazoo, Mich., a college town between Chicago and Detroit. He said he really misses lakes and trees. ¨Lake Michigan looks just like the ocean — the waves are smaller, but you don’t have to worry about getting eaten by sharks,¨ he said.

Mr. Langley went to Western Michigan University and majored in English. He completed his teaching credential years later at California State at Long Beach. He said English is his subject area because he grew up reading. His mother read to him a lot when he was younger, and as a young kid he always spent his entire allowance on comics. Then it was Stephen King in middle school, science fiction in early high school, and pretty much everything else later on.

He has had many jobs in his life, but he’d never really considered teaching because he was shy and reserved as a younger person. He later tried substitute teaching and found that he enjoyed working with young people. “I would rather be around teenagers than people my own age,” he said. ¨People that are ancient like me tend to have their minds made up about everything and are set in their own ways. Teenagers are embarking on an adventurous time in their life. Being around their energy gives me a positive outlook on life.¨

Mr. Langley likes to write short stories and he also has a longer project in the works. He also plays guitar and enjoys “torturing his neighbors” with it. He also really loves road trips. “If I have enough days off in a row, I will hit the road and not look back,” he said. He’ll drive to Michigan and California every summer, and sometimes he makes it to New York to visit his cousins there.

He’s hoping more students will find out about the club and join. Meetings are in A-129 on Wednesdays during lunch. He added, “Stop by and say hi sometime if you want a suggestion for a good book to read or have an interest in hiking club.”