After 8 years of teaching Spanish, Mr. Flores is looking to make changes at the school, making it friendlier and more welcoming as he has taken on the position of assistant principal. Additionally, he also sees the position as a chance to be a role model for students, showing them that despite being from a family of immigrants, and originally failing in his education, you can still rise up and acquire a position of leadership.
As assistant principal, Mr. Flores wants to create change in the school by promoting a better learning environment for students, one that fosters critical thinking skills, and creativity, while moving away from the more conservative approach to learning, where teachers assign tasks on a strict deadline. He feels that this type of system makes good factory workers, but not scholars.
He also wants to be a role model and demonstrate to students who are distracted from getting a proper education that a life of crime is not a path to success. He knows from personal experience when he got involved with gangs and narcotics that gradually made him stray from the path of getting a degree at school. The years of his life that he spent with his gang was unfulfilling and accomplished nothing, and he had to part from the gang life to return back to school.
Mr. Flores is grateful to now have the opportunity to serve in the field of education, first as a teacher & now as an assistant principal. He says, “It is an honor to be of service to the youth of the future. It’s humbling and it gives life purpose and deep meaning to be in the field of education in service of our youth.”
Always wanting to empower students coming from marginalized backgrounds, Mr. Flores has been seeking a way to create change. He saw the assistant principal role as the perfect chance, so when an application was released for the job, he promptly applied.
Prior to being able to apply for the job, Mr. Flores had to obtain his administration credential at SF State and pass an assessment as part of the master’s degree in education leadership This process also required him to attend Saturday school for a year in preparation for his upcoming role. Some of Mr. Flores’s daily duties include attending administrative meetings, meeting with parents, and managing projects, such as school tours.
While Mr. Flores enjoys working with students, he also has strong words for them. He says, “The heart of the matter is that you have to do the work. If you want life to give you its sweet fruits, you have to do the hard work first. There’s no easy route.”
