Just this year, a new speech and debate teacher was introduced. Maddison Cobos, a substitute teacher at Carlsbad High, has taken over speech and debate and freshman English classes.

When they have a new substitute teacher, students don’t always know what to expect. At first, it was difficult for students to adjust, but eventually, Cobos fit right in. Freshman Karley Stein, a student in her English class, enjoys Cobos’s personality.

“She is incredibly sweet, and she has this way of just connecting with all the students, so she’s just a lovely person,” Stein said.

Cobos strives to leave a positive mark on her students. Cobos makes sure all of her students are ready to learn and have fun with the many activities that she provides in class, including interactive speeches and teamwork projects. Freshman Cora Caldwell is also keen on Cobos’s teaching style.

“Mrs. Cobos has been my favorite teacher this year by far,” Caldwell said, “The main reason for this is because when she assigns work, her goal is to get it in on time and to have fun, too.” 

Cobos aims to be very ready and prepared when it comes to teaching. When she first started teaching, however, coming up with lessons and taking full responsibility for her classes was her biggest challenge. 

“One of the challenges is just getting things together,” Cobos said, “It’s easy when you have a lesson plan and you know what’s expected for the day. But when I had to start doing the lesson planning, I had to start from ground zero and work from there.” 

Though Cobos was expecting challenges coming into her new job, she had to overcome these difficulties quickly. Cobos learned how to deal with new issues that come up in modern-day classrooms and provide her students with the best learning environment possible. 

“I’ve learned patience because phones are definitely a new thing for me to deal with,” Cobos said. “It’s not something that I grew up with, so I’m learning how to navigate that where I’m not super strict but I also keep them from using phones.” 

Cobos tries to create a fun environment for all her students even with some of the challenges that she’s faced. Many students believe that she has done a great job trying to accomplish that goal, even though speech and debate is a very new field for her. 

“She really helps us learn the material in a way that is interesting, but as a speech and debate teacher, even if she doesn’t know a lot about the topic we are doing, she is always interested in helping us,” Caldwell said.

Although Cobos is new to the Carlsbad community, Caldwell believes that she has bonded with all her students and has given them an opportunity to learn and get better. Transitioning from being a short-term substitute teacher to a long-term substitute teacher was a big change for her, but she has embraced the change with open arms. 

“I have subbed mostly, so I have subbed in the Poway district, I’ve subbed here at Carlsbad and I have taught at corpower, but this is my first long-term sub position,” Cobos said. “I have never spent this long of a time at one school as I am doing now.” 

The experience as a long-term teacher here at Carlsbad High School has helped Mrs. Cobos grow and adapt to challenges as a teacher. Cobos has left a positive mark on her students and stepped up to be the teacher the speech and debate program was looking for. 

“Oh absolutely,” Cobos said. “I love it. It’s something I enjoy doing. I love learning skills and then applying them to my environment. This year I got to do what I love and it was great.’’