Kenrick — A Conversation with Kenrick Mark Coleman Features Gian Vasquez

The Kenrick Mark Coleman Foundation

Kenrick — A Conversation with Kenrick Mark Coleman Features Gian Vasquez

1. Tell us a little about yourself.

My name is Gian Carlo Vasquez, born on the 12th of June, 1982 in the Orange Walk Hospital to proud parents Adelfino Vasquez and Magdalena Lopez. I am the second of five children. I have three brothers and one sister. I am a teacher at St. John’s College Junior College and the proud father of five children.

My eldest son is presently in first form at my alma mater St. John’s College High School. His name is Keahn. My second son is Nazyr Jahyed and he is most like me, followed by my spitting images, Gyannah Merie and Zoe Joanne. My last child is a boy and he is my little Angel named after my fraternal grandfather whom I never had a chance to know or meet.

I love and have a passion for history and learning about history and passing on the information. My other passion includes football which I also study with a passion as I coach and as I am an aficionado. I am a fanatic of the Football Club Barcelona — “Visca la Barca”. I am also an avid student of politics and hopefully someday I venture into a position that I can affect a change that is lacking in our society. The inequity increases on a daily basis and it is my vision to someday create equal “opportunity” for all.

2. You are a renowned and dedicated educator in Belize City. What do you believe is important in this your role?

I am not sure if I am renowned and dedicated either but Belize City yes. You might be stunted by my response but I will clarify. Renowned means that you are popular and I don’t think I am popular but I do know that students who have gone through me hold me in high regard for my level of professionalism and my drive to keep that bar and standard high. When they leave and meet the world they realize why I was the way I was and they appreciate it. If that means renowned then I will say yes. Dedicated, again I do not see myself as dedicated because I have not fully embraced the world of academia as I should and I have neglected writing and publishing which to me marks the zenith of dedicated. Love my job and love history, Yes I do!!! To me, people mistake my love for history for dedication and that is ok.

I love what I do and I go through my careers with my father’s mantra. As a young man getting my first job he told me son, “Whatever you do, do to your best or do not do it all”. I love my job and therefore it is easy for me to do my best. What I believe is important in my role is my intrinsic motivation, passion. This is most important as a teacher I believe because it will impact everything you do as a teacher. You need to have passion for what you do as it will lead you to do an excellent job and become self-satisfied with what you are doing. It wakes you in the morning and it gives the energy to stay up and plan and it ensures that you give students value for their dollar. Passion makes you check every paper meticulously without exception and ensuring that students receive a fair and timely feedback. This is something that is not reflected in the teaching license that I think should. Teachers with no passion do a disservice to our students and kill their drive. When you are passionate about what you do, it will infect your students and they will have the same drive and motivation that is necessary to create the professionals that will assist with the positive development of our country.

3. Tell us more about your career in teaching? Why did you choose to venture into this? What are the experiences like?

My career in teaching started in 2004 and I remember it fondly. Mr. Requena of the Anglican Cathedral College and Ms. Carol Babb saw something in me back then and took a chance on me. They gave me my first job at the Anglican Cathedral College teaching Social Studies and History. It was baptism through fire. I learnt much of what has brought me this far in my career from my days at ACC. I interacted with great people and met some lifelong friends and students that became friends. From there, I was offered a post at my Alma Mater and I jumped at the opportunity to go back to what had been my home for much of my formative years. I use to sit in the same seats and I knew my love for SJC is as much as I have for my subject matters. From SJC, I went to UB to do a degree in History and I did all the classes for the diploma in education so I have all the necessary pedagogical skills to be an excellent educator. Men like Dr. Alberto August and Dr. Joseph Iyo have had a profound impact on my development as educator and history teacher. Their creativity and bar of excellence is par none and I try to keep that spirit alive in what I do as a teacher.

To me honest, I never wanted to be a teacher or even decided to be a teacher. I simply applied to jobs in the newspaper and went to interviews. In the end I must commit this choice not to my intentions but to the intentions of the most gracious and merciful, God. It was as though divine intervention brought me to what I was best at. I fit like the last piece of a puzzle in teaching and I have not only done a good job. I believe I have taken it up a bit and thrived in the position. I am mentor and counselor, parent and brother and friend. My life experiences make me ideal to deal with much of what I see as much as they impact me too.

As a teacher I have had wonderful moments, bad moments, ugly moments and all types of descriptors as you can imagine. I have loved my experience as a teacher and I would not change it for the world. The experience has made be unique. It has given me unique perspectives and it has allowed me to grow as an individual, professionally, and spiritually. It was as though God wanted me near and the church state system has allowed me to stay near and be impacted by the grace of God. Teaching is awesome but sometimes sad. When you taught a young man or woman and the violence plaguing our society takes their live, it hurts. It hurts badly! But the reverse is also true, seeing my students over excel brings the most joy in me. To know I assisted in the molding of great minds and leaders gives me great joy.

4. What are the challenges of your career? Opportunities?

Because I am solution driven, I do not see much challenges with my career. The only problem I see is a lack of interest by students and that is the biggest barrier to learning. I try as best as I can to bring motivation and spark and interest in my students. That is the biggest obstacle to me. Once I capture them, it is easy to lead them into the path I want. So long as I gain their trust and they begin to follow then teaching becomes rather easy, fun and fulfilling to the student.

In teaching there are so many opportunities. So long as you are motivated and driven, then there exists opportunities to further your studies. So many opportunities are available that it is just left for you to take advantage and reach and take it. In terms of supplementing your income, something we all need to do, there is several opportunities. You can become a part time teacher at tertiary institutions, do private tutoring, become involve with government outreach programs, or even start you own small business. My favorite opportunities is when I go to a government office or private business and my past students give me a helping hand making my experience shorter and easier. This is really the perk of teaching.

5. Describe your best moments in teaching. What about your worst? What’s a classic teaching day like with Gian Vasquez? What are your preparations like on a daily basis?

My best moments in teaching have nothing to do with teaching. It has to do with when my students write back from Jamaica or the US and say to me, “sir, thanks for being so hard on our essays and citation, you know some people don’t know how to cite and how to write and defend”. Those are the most treasured moments of teaching.

My worst has to be in the class room. I recall in class a student almost made me lose it. I was returning papers and he did not do his best and got a failing grade. As I walked around and returned the paper I felt a breeze behind me and he had waved his hand behind my head as though to slap me with my back turned and I almost lost it and hit the students. I walked away and in a most angered voiced I asked him to leave my class and go to the vice principal. That was my worst teaching day.

I don’t think there is a classic day with me. Every day is different and every class is different. The only thing typical is that history major sarcasm and confidence. I break you down and build you up and assist you to be critical and hard working. Hard work pays off. If there was a classic day it would probably go like this, “good morning class! How many of you read? Only two? Ok! Take out a sheet of paper, we are having a quiz”. Some might say it is unfair but it is a real lesson to be learnt that will assist in the real world. Always be prepared.

On a daily basis my preparations include writing notes and going over power point to ensure it covers what I want to cover. It also involves going over activities that have worked on and using my creative juices in developing activities that might capture and captivate my students into learning but not too distracting from the subject matter that is history.

6. As a junior college educator, how do you ensure that the materials being taught are important to the overall development of our young people?

The development of young people should be a holistic approach. Content is very important but sometimes content is not the most important part of teaching for the development of young people. My main focus to develop young people is to develop critical thinking skills and the capacity for research, citation and analysis. These I believe are most important for young people. If I teach them the love for research and being able to be critical of the information they retrieve then that will better assist them to interact with their world. Research real life problems and constantly increase the knowledge in the repertoire. This in my opinion is most important. If they leave with the knowledge to research and trouble shoot, they will be able to do this where ever they go.

7. Do you believe the education system in Belize needs to be restructured? Why? Is there a need for the proper fusion of a “cultures and history of Belize” section in the educational curriculum?

The education system of Belize needs much restructuring. The restructuring I speak about is in term of its focus. First and foremost there is indeed a need for “cultures and history of Belize”. All Belizeans need to be informed and educated about the history of Belize to develop a deep love for country that transcends political and cultural divides. It will create a sense of nationalism and patriotism that will allow us to all move forward together. We all need to realize that we have a common history and we have a common goal. That can only be done if we know who we are and the common struggles. This is especially true of the Belize-Guatemala dispute. If we had all been educated from independence until now we would all be knowledgeable and informed about what would be the appropriate action in respect to a referendum to go to the ICJ or not.

Apart from this new focus, there needs to be a merging of the economic development goals of the country and the educational system. We need to look at history and take lessons that may benefit our country. China had the “Great Leap Forward” where every five years the country had a focus and for five years its resources and educational system and everything was focused on that. Similarly, if there is to be development in our country our National University needs to focus on research and educating people based on what our development goals are. If we seek to be producers of call centers then our educational system needs to shift focus on becoming the best at these business. Infrastructural development needs to cater to that, technology needs to focus on that, research needs to focus on that.

8. If there was a list of the top 10 most dedicated teachers in Belize city, you would be on it. Given that you lead a busy school life, how do you find time for family and loved ones? Apart from being an educator, are you involved in any other institutions?

Finding time for family and loved ones is the most challenging part of educating young minds. However, given that we put in tremendous work during the school year it is just and fair that we are given Christmas, Easter and Summer breaks that allow us to share time with our family and loved ones. On weekends, I try to do my best to spend time with my family but sometimes it is hard. Especially that I involve myself in many things that probably detracts from my family responsibility but in the end allows to keep me sane. I am councilor in the Yo Creek village council and I have to assist when they have events and that takes away from my relationship. I also love football and I try to assist with football events and that takes away. I think the best advice is not the quantity of time you spend with your family and loved ones but the quality that matters. Make every second count and let them know you love them.

9. What advice do you have for aspiring educators?

I only have one advice for aspiring educators. Be an educator because you love the profession and not because you have a steady pay check. If you do not have the passion and love for educating, the passion for looking and reflecting in yourself and seeing that you are not perfect and neither are your students then you should not be a teacher. If the thought of delivering a lesson and seeing your students, even the one that gets on nerves does not wake you in the morning with excitement then don’t be a teacher. If you are not willing to read about your profession and constantly want to know more about teaching and techniques then you are not to be a teacher. If you are willing to change that lesson plan every year and adjusting test to fit what you teach and change exams and add new things and subtract things that did not work then you will see results. Reflection is the key to being a good teacher. Reflect everyday about the job you are doing and what you could have done different. Reflect to expect the unexpected in your class. Reflect for self-fulfillment.

10. What three words do you have to say to young Belizeans?

I had to think about this for a long time and I will have to steal the mantra of one of the athlete I most disgust but admire everything he stands for, Floyd Mayweather. “Hardwork, Dedication” and to make it three I would say, “Creativity, Hardwork, Dedication”!!! The Gian Team (TGT)

Although Mayweather might be hated and disgusted, I must applaud him for embracing the mantra of Hardwork and Dedication. This I would say to my students are the key to success. It made Floyd reach the highest level of his profession and it will work for you too. Creativity should be embraced as it is your personal touch. Never loose yourself and give everything you do your personal touch.

Photo courtesy: Institute of Social and Cultural Research

Thanks to Mr. Nigel Encalada.