The legendary substitute teacher, Hector Cobb, is the most recent winner of the best substitute teacher award in the state of Oregon, and will be honored in a ceremony later this month.
Cobb has been a substitute teacher at Cleveland High School for the last 43 years, teaching multiple generations from GenX to Gen-Alpha. Cobb has also taught Cleveland staff, including Matt Sten, Mat Alvarado, and Matt Staab.
While he is beloved in many different PPS schools, Cobb says he prefers Cleveland because he “enjoys the people and has many friends here. The kids here at Cleveland are awesome,” he said.
Last year, Cobb was a finalist for the title, nominated by a teacher friend at Franklin, and finished as a semifinalist. This year, he was nominated for the award by Spanish teacher Richard Acuna. He won out of 114 candidates.
“He represents so many amazing qualities … one of them is resilience,” Acuna said. “I was so happy that he actually won this year.”
Cobb said that he was surprised when he won, as he didn’t think he was going to win the award. He said when he works at Cleveland, “it doesn’t seem like work, it’s fun.”
Cobb will be honored in a ceremony at Chemeketa Community College on Oct. 11, near Salem, where he will collect his award and attend a luncheon at a conference for the substitute teachers of Oregon.
You can often find Hector Cobb working in the library or substituting for the Spanish teachers, or others such as Sten, health teacher Camille Adana, science teacher Ami Fox, journalism teacher Andy Sorensen, or English teacher EricLevine. If you ask, he will help you with Spanish or history homework, and with a degree in library science, he will always have a good book recommendation for you.
If you ask him, he will usually freestyle a fun rap from going to class on time to doing your homework, often completed with his signature word, ‘lordy’ or phrase, “lordy lordy.” You can also ask him for a high five, and he will defy your normal high-five expectations and put his own spin on the classic move.
If you see him in your classes or the hall, make sure to congratulate him on his award and make sure you ask him for a fun rap!
