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From Making History to Teaching It: Armanino's Origin Story
From Making History to Teaching It: Armanino's Origin Story
Samantha Kelly
Mr. Armanino, a history teacher at Flagstaff High School, has been chosen for this edition's teacher spotlight because of his importance to the school community. Mr. Armanino is in his final year of college and is going to graduate with his masters in history this upcoming spring. On top of that, he balances teaching three different history classes, coaching baseball, and being one of four union representatives.
Before diving deeper, it’s important to understand what led him down the path of pursuing education. In an interview, he was asked about the decisions that led to where he was now. He explained that being a teacher wasn’t always the plan.
When asked about why he wanted to pursue education as a career, he stated “I wanted to do a job that involved contributing to society, giving back, and, like, building a better world than just profit.” After graduating with his bachelor's degree in 2021, Mr. Armanino was unsure if he wanted to actually become a teacher. He took a semester off and during that time he coached baseball and got a job at Lululemon. In the following semester, he took the opportunity to finally student teach. Unfortunately, his student teaching didn’t help convince him education was the career path he wanted to follow.
After wrapping up his student teaching, he continued to be involved in the school. He considered just working at Lululemon or moving back to California to work in insurance. During this time, he still coached baseball, and also picked up substitute teaching. He said it was this that led him to really fall in love with the idea of being a teacher.
Currently, Mr. Armanino teaches two history classes, U.S. History and World History. While he’s taught U.S. History in past years, this is his first-year teaching World History. Still laying the groundwork for how he wants to teach the class, he takes inspiration from his fellow teachers Mr. Lankton and Ms. Richmond.
On the contrary, this is his third-year teaching U.S. History. This year, he is taking a new approach to how he is formatting the class. He intends on following the district outline to cover all of the necessary topics needed by November. With the rest of the time given he plans to focus more on project-based learning where students can research topics that interest them. He hopes that this will lead his students to formulating their own opinions on events using historical context.
Through his methods of teaching, Mr. Armanino has had quite the impact on his students. He is a caring person who makes time for each and every individual in his classroom. During his lectures he works in downtime where he can focus on learning about his students interests outside of class. To support this he said, “I really do try keeping tabs on who through our week so I’m talking to all students in class and not just chatting with, like, maybe the ones that would more comfortably talk with me.”
These moments he has with people leaves lasting impressions which you can see in almost every single student. Talking to a former student of Mr. Armanino’s, Lesley Smith, a now senior at Flagstaff High School, he said “Armanino is the most genuine mentor and teacher I’ve ever had,” continuing to say “he makes teaching personal, especially for being a history teacher, he makes me feel like what he’s teaching is important, not just in general, but to me and every other student.”
While he might not be everyone’s favorite teacher, he handles things in a way that most students can’t help but respect. When
speaking with Eloise Archer, a senior at Flagstaff High School who was previously enrolled in his class, she went on to talk about how Armanino quickly resolved a quarrel between the two. “He apologized and took accountability,” going on to say “he was willing to talk to me like an equal and not use some weird power dynamic to prove he’s right or something.”
There have been a good number of changes to the history department in recent years. Armanino has managed to stick with U.S. History until this 2025-26 school year. He says that wasn’t necessarily by choice, “first looking for a job, I think I would have preferred World. [But] after teaching U.S. I really have come to enjoy it.” Part of the reason why that's the case is because he said he “really enjoys the junior class.”
Outside of teaching, Mr. Armanino has coached baseball at Flagstaff High School for 6 years. After coaching freshman baseball for 5 years, he is hoping to apply to be a junior varsity coach this spring. This will also be Mr. Armanino's second year as a union representative. He fills one of four positions and is responsible for attending monthly meetings with Flagstaff High Schools admin, meetings with the Flagstaff Unified School District, and also helping host monthly lunch meetings with union members at the school. He describes his job as "essentially we’re there to allow teachers not to be punished unfairly for things that happen in a job that is often times confusing and messy.”