De Parte del Maestro
By Josh Flores

Saludos a todos!  My name is Josh Flores, and in the coming weeks I will begin contributing a monthly to a semi-weekly column for La Prensa.  The focus of the column will be issues pertaining to Youth and will be called De Parte del Maestro. 

I have been a high school educator at Waite High School for nine years and an active community member since my early years of college.  It is my hope that the experience I have gained along with other life experiences will allow this column to speak directly to our Jovenes. 

 Josh Flores of Eastside’s Waite High School painting students for Día de los Muertos

The idea to write this actually came from my students and I thank them for inspiring me to do so.  They felt that young people would benefit from some of the discussions that we have in my classroom, thus the topics I will write about are primarily related to things that have been beneficial to my students.  

As an educator, I believe that I am responsible for not only teaching my subject matter, which happens to be Spanish, but also to serve as a mentor, role model, and ,ultimately, a teacher of life. 

While education is a critical component in success, so too is the value of experience and life’s lessons.  It is also important that I proclaim from the onset that I am not an expert in all of the areas I will write about.  However, I hope to provide resources where expert information may be obtained when necessary. 

So muchachos y muchachas please keep an eye out in La Prensa for the column that is talking directly to you.  Hasta pronto!

     Waite High School Spanish teacher Josh Flores with some of his students, celebrating El Día de los Muertos on Nov. 2, 2007. East Toledo’s Waite HS has the largest Latino population.