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I also was a science teacher and was also a working biologist. Evolution of the species by natural selection is pretty much a given for biologists. Bacterial evolution can be seen within a few days and I doubt that many people infected with MRSA would say, "No give me that old time Penicillin. What was good for my grandfather is good for me."

The origin of life is NOT part of 'the theory of evolution thru natural selection.'

http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/ev.not.html

Non-biological evolution also occurs, the 'robot' revolution taking place right now is a direct result of 'machine learning.' No one is trying to actually WRITE the code for a self-driving car. The code evolves.

The origins of life is another subject entirely. The chemical origins of life is a rich field of study that is producing many examples of chemical evoution.
http://www.astro.sunysb.edu/lattimer/AST248/lecture_13.pdf
https://www.nature.com/subjects/origin-of-life

Two important points to contemplate are:

1. The immense span of time it took for self-replication to arise.
2. Living things are only JUST good enough to survive and replicate. After billions of years they are pretty good at it but it is still only just good enough.There is still lots of room for improvement.