Mr. Mayfield has been teaching for sixteen years, educating kids in AP Government, AP Human Geography, and World Geography. He started in 2005 at our very own school, where he has been teaching ever since. Being the one of the only geography teachers at Ripon High, Mayfield teaches the subject for every one of his periods. Mayfield has mostly freshman classes, but he influences students of all ages.

Not only has he been teaching at the school for a number of years, Mayfield has also coached many different sports during his time here. He was the basketball coach for boys and girls for over ten years, starting at Riverbank and ending at Ripon. He then proceeded to coach girls’ tennis for five years. 

“Geography is one of the newer classes we’ve offered at RHS,” said Mayfield, “so it was exciting to be a part of the first ones teaching it.” 

Geography was offered as a class at Ripon High roughly six years ago. Students take it either in their freshman year as a mandatory class or later in their high school career as an elective. The major thing that led to Mayfield teaching geography was his want to teach kids how to connect geography with the problems they experience firsthand. He knew that he would be one of the first teachers to teach the subject at Ripon, so Mayfield was very excited to influence the children taking geography.

“The students are great — even the ones that at times are lazy or annoying,” said Mayfield. “I enjoy interacting with students each day, much better than being holed up in an office cubicle.”

Thinking about what to do for the rest of your life is a scary topic, especially when it comes to working in offices. Mayfield didn’t want to spend his days slumped in a cubicle filing papers, so he became a teacher. His students are the ones who make his job enjoyable. With around 150 kids to teach, Mayfield has interactions with all types of personalities, filling his days at the school with humor and excitement.

“Geography is everywhere, and there’s tons of connections we can make with the real world,” said Mayfield.

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