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New Students
Continuing Students
Our Instructors
Bob Tonthat
Students find me to be their favorite instructor because I am easy to get along with. In my many years of teaching, I have heard so many stories from my students about driving instructors that lose their temper or yell at their students. I cannot understand why anyone would want to be mean to an inexperienced driver. I can tell you that teenagers like teachers who are patient and explain instruction in a clear and simple manner. I just love traffic safety. I enjoy teaching students about the laws and rules of driving. I want my students to understand traffic safety. And I know the best way to do that is to be relaxed and easy going. The office tells me I am requested so much because of my precise careful teaching in an easygoing style.
Don Conway
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Beatriz Cervantes
I have been a driving instructor on and off for Bakker's Driving School for the last 6 years. I have an ability to understand the strengths and weaknesses of my students as they learn. I instruct slowly and gently, which is why, when the lesson is finished, my students walk back in their front door wanting to drive. More than any other subject, "learning to drive" must have a patient instructor. Slow patient instructing helps students learn fast. My schedule can get busy. Plan a month or two in advance to get the times and dates you want on my schedule.
Julian Alfaro
The owner of the school says I was born to teach. I pay close attention to what my student is saying and how he is doing to help him get through difficult driving situations. Students need simple easy instructions and then quiet to allow them to drive safely. Many teachers talk too much and interfere with their student's learning. I am naturally calm, this has a calming effect on my students. A calm teacher with a gentle voice has relaxed students. A nervous jittery teacher has nervous students. If you have never driven in your life, you cannot imagine how fast you will learn with a good teacher. If you are nervous and afraid to drive, I am the right teacher for you. I like my job.
Rick LaGoe
The Bakker's Driving School office says the feedback from my students to the office is that I have a gentle positive teaching style, which makes students learn fast. I am known for being a competent but a patient instructor. If any student has a problem passing a drive test they often have me instruct those students so they can have a better chance of passing on their next try. I really enjoy teaching students. While I have a reputation among students for being competent and gentle I come from a background of extensive training on how to teach.
While in the Marine Corps I was assigned to be the body guard for the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan for 2 years. My job was to ride with the Ambassador and his driver, making sure the driver abided by all the local traffic laws and directing him in any defensive maneuvers we had to do. To train me for this job, I was sent to the F.B.I Academy for 6 months for training which included an intensive course in Defensive Driving. The course taught me how to explain and teach to my drivers safe driving habits and maneuvers in very stressful situations.
While teaching driving lessons now, I use what I learned over the years including how to maneuver a car correctly in complex driving situations always impressing on my students defensive driving and of California rules of the road. I have been a driving instructor since 1996. For five of those years I taught adults to drive and pass the drive test. Anyone can teach teenagers to drive, but the real skill in being a driving instructor is getting adults to be able to pass a drive test. With years of listening to examiners tell me how my adult students did as they went through the drive test and got their drivers license, this experience has really helped me refine my ability of preparing students for their drive test today. So when teaching your teenager how to drive, you can be sure I am accurately preparing them for a California drive test with a foundation in defensive driving skills. My students text me their score when they pass their drive tests. It is important to me to know my students did well.
Oscar Meza-Perez
When teaching there is a right moment to be supportive and positive, and there is a moment when saying nothing is the right thing to do. I give each student my full attention. I teach them how to be safe drivers and tell them when they are doing well. Students like when I laugh with them when they make mistakes instead of being impatient. Patience is a natural part of who I am. I am told my two month old nephew prefers to be with me because he is comfortable with me. The office says students find me more comfortable to be with because I am closer to their age and they can relate to me easier. They have reported through the office staff when scheduling, "Oscar is cool. He rocks!"
Roosevelt Courtney
The office tells me I am one of the most requested teachers at Bakker's. I teach the drive test material so thoroughly that my students have the highest 100% rating of all the teachers at Bakker's. I know that your driving instructor is the one teacher you'll never forget. I hope to make your driving experience enjoyable.
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Denis Hangl's
I really enjoy teaching. My favorite part of teaching I think like most teachers is seeing the progress of my students as their abilities improve from the beginning to end of each lesson. Some school teachers have to wait months or even a lifetime to see the fruit of their labor. But the great thing about being a driving instructor is seeing that increase in skill at the moment each student is learning. I had a military career in the Navy before teaching driving lessons. I moved from New York to San Diego in 1993. My dad and I went to Yankee games together for years and I am still a Yankees fan.
Scott Viau
(Retired)
Bob Hanrahan
I have been teaching since 1998. My specialty is teaching the freeway. The skill needed is teaching on-ramps, matching traffic speed with a proper following distance and lane changes. I have known driving instructors who are afraid of teaching on the freeway altogether. But I excel at this. Students feel comfortable on the freeway after having me as their instructor. We teach freeway only on the second and third lessons. I have raised my own family and am now watching my grandchildren grow up. I teach in a late model Acura. Students tell me its the best car to learn in because it is "forgiving." That is if a student doesn't do perfect through a turn for example the car compensates for small mistakes and the car goes through the turn smoothly anyway. I am careful to cover drive test material on that third lesson thoroughly and defensive driving so they are well prepared for that all important DMV drive test.
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Ron Sharp
I have been teaching since 1998. My specialty is first time never driven before students. This is actually a special skill that all teachers don't have. While all students learn at different rates, my students always walk away from a driving lesson with me feeling they have learned so much and are so happy and want to drive. My secret in teaching nervous students so successfully is having them focus on the task at hand, by communicating clearly what to do and being calm. I have found that my being calm myself helps my students be calm which allows them to do well on their lessons.
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Ozzy Asmat
My name is Asmat Rafiqzad or as my friends call me Ozzy. I have a lot of experience with the specialty of DMV drive tests for Teenagers and adults. I understand the drive test and what DMV examiners expect and what they don't like, as my business cards say "100 plus drive tests". I enjoy preparing students of all ages for their drive test and consider myself having done my job when my students pass their drive with well taught defensive driving concepts that they would not have gotten from a less dedicated teacher. I am the type of teacher that has the reputation with the school office of always keeping my appointment commitments with my students.
Back to the topSam Viau
My name is Sam Viau. I am the one on the right in the green jacket. After leaving the Marines I fell in love with my high school sweetheart Skylee. We have a one year old son named Jason. My father was a driving instructor for Bakker's Driving School for more than 10 years. Following in my father's footsteps I have been a driving instructor for Bakker's Driving School since 2009. I love cars, I love driving. Being a driving instructor is natural for me. I enjoy explaining thoroughly from the very fundamentals of turns to the last lesson preparing very carefully a student for the drive test. When students can do turns correctly, it is the foundation to the rest of their driving. There is a way to teach turns to students where they learn gradually slowly and carefully. Some students get it quicker than others, but with repetition and a little patience, all my students do well on their very first lesson, even if they have never driven in their life. The goal I have for my students is that they walk away from their driving lesson loving to drive. If you don't love to drive after your first lesson then you had an incompetent instructor. Being a good patient instructor is what students want and is not difficult if you know how to teach.