World geography teacher Michael Woodward enjoys teaching his students at school and running half marathons and taking pictures in his down time out of school.

What do you love most about your job? “Just working with students, helping them figure out stuff. It’s really fun when a student is stuck for a long time, and then their light bulb comes on.”

What is the most difficult part of your job? “Going to meetings and grading papers. That’s the part that is not fun.”

What is your favorite place to travel? “Anywhere. I love travel, but one place I would like to go back to is southern Spain. One of my top places to visit is Ireland.”

What’s your favorite food? My favorite type of food is Mexican food. My favorite dish, well I’m kind of boring, just carne asada tacos.”

What is your favorite day of the week? “I guess Saturday. That’s the only day I don’t have to set an alarm.”

If you could have one super power, what would it be? “Time travel, because we have romanticized visions of the past. It would be really cool to see if it was really what we make it to be.”

What was your first car? “It was a Subaru station wagon. It was beige. There was nothing special about it. I don’t even think the windows were automatic.”

What makes you happy? “Building things out of old doors. I have turned them into picnic tables. It could be a type of recycling.”

What is the best thing about teaching at Tracy High? “For me it’s being in the classroom with my students and my colleagues in the social studies department.”

Did you always know that you wanted to be a teacher? “Yes, I thought about being an orthodontist for a long time, but then I remembered that I would have to stick my fingers into kids’ mouths. Both of my parents were teachers as well, so it’s always been expected of me.”

If you weren’t a teacher now, what would you be doing? “I would probably be sleeping if I weren’t a teacher right now. I don’t know, probably doing some type of historical research, or photojournalism. I like taking pictures, I’m not very good at it, but I enjoy it.”

What do you like to photograph? “Historic landmarks, buildings, and stuff like that.”

What are your hobbies? “Running would be one of them, I enjoy it and I think it’s fun. I have run 16 half marathons”

Which half marathon was the most fun? “The Big Sur Marathon. It starts in Monterey and runs up the coast line. So, you get to run along the ocean for most of the course. It is a fun course.”