Mario Vazquez shares his birthday with Pablo Picasso, something he takes as a spiritual connection and influence on his work as an artist. Vazquez’s artistic talent led him to the classroom and into the halls of Hialeah Miami Lakes Senior High School where he was nominated and selected as Teacher of the Year for 2014-2015.
Born in Caguas and raised in Cidra, Puerto Rico, Vazquez earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Art Education from Southern Connecticut State University and a Specialist degree from Barry University.
The road to teaching for Vazquez first began following his service in the U.S. Army coupled with inspiration drawn from his parents. His mother was an educator and Vazquez grew up watching her read, study or correcting school work. Being raised in an educationally-rich environment along with a knack for art directed Vazquez to career options that allowed him to give back to the community whilst feeding the muse.
He began teaching Spanish in New Haven, Connecticut for a period of time until his itch for art led him to a position as an art teacher at Eli Whitney Vocational Technical High School in Hamden, Connecticut and later to sunny Florida at HML where he juggles a long list of responsibilities and titles.
Vazquez currently teaches Visual Arts at HML which includes drawing, painting, and photography. He is the Department chair for the school’s Foreign Languages and Performing and Visual Arts departments in addition to his role as the school’s webmaster and Art Gallery director. Vazquez also moonlights as an adjunct professor at Broward College where he teaches Art Appreciation and as a doctoral graduate student for Higher Education Administration at Nova Southeastern University.
“I value making a difference in the lives on the many students who walk into my classroom,” said Vazquez. “As a teacher it is very hard to turn off the switch of sharing knowledge with students. I learn as much from my students as they learn from me. I believe everyone brings something to the table that we all learn from. I see our diverse and multicultural society and world as a huge ever-growing classroom.”
A special learning moment for Vazquez once came in the form of an apparent violation of school policy. A student in his class was on her cellphone and when reprimanded she simply said that it was an important call and she could not hang up. Upon closer inspection Vazquez came to see that the student was using sign language to communicate with her mother during an emergency via Skype on the cellphone.
“Even though the no cell phone use policy is a school-wide one, I had to make the exception,” said Vazquez. “Those deep learning moments do not come too often. The mother needed her child’s assistance. Not a lot of people know the sign language communication format. I was the student in that exceptional learning moment.”
Vazquez is also aware of the changing educational landscape with the progress of technology. With students becoming global learners Vazquez believes teachers, administrators and the education system must continue to step outside the box by delving into innovative methods of instructional delivery.
“Technology is a tool we must learn to grasp in order to better deliver options to today’s digital learners,” said Vazquez.
In addition to his learning experience within the classroom, Vazquez also mentors interns and teachers during the academic school year such as working with Art Education program students from Florida International University by putting theory to practice. Outside the classroom Vazquez spends his time with his son, Mario Vazquez Jr., traveling, reading, researching and kayaking.
Vazquez was previously named Rookie Teacher of the Year at HML for the 2003-2004 school year. Despite his selection as Teacher of the Year, Vazquez humbly suggested other recipients.
“I did not expect to be nominated as Teacher of the Year,” said Vazquez. “Even though I feel really honored by this nomination, I personally think this award should be given to educators with over 20 years of teaching experience. Those educators are the ones who really deserve to be winners of this award.”
Vazquez says he will always be a teacher at heart though he still has a list of goals to accomplish, one of which is to become a policymaker in the education field to tweak laws and regulations he feels can be improved and would further expand the support services for students at both the K-12 and college areas.
“Our profession is not given much credit at times,” said Vazquez, ”yet we are the professionals who teach all other professions.”