Mark Perez Portfolio Homepage
Biography
I am a Southern California native, born and raised in south Orange County. I grew up in the cities of San Clemente and Mission Viejo, where I now live and teach. I'm currently in my 10th year at Mission Viejo High School where I teach Spanish, levels 1,2 & AP as well as the junior class AVID elective. I also serve as the curriculum leader for the World Languages department. Since I was very young, I always knew I wanted to be a teacher, I remember forcing my younger sister to sit in my "class" at home in the living room as I tried to teach her various things I had learned at school that day. I also remember annoying my cousins and other relatives at family gatherings and parties when I would beg them to play school- with me playing the role teacher, of course- when they wanted to go outside to play or stay indoors to master Super Mario Brothers on Nintendo. This innate desire to teach flowed me through high school as I began to plan my future beyond K12. Because of the high cost of college tuition, I attended Saddleback Community College in Mission Viejo. While there, I took a full load of courses for 2 years, including summer sessions and weekend courses in order to transfer to a 4 year university in 2 years. While at Saddleback, I took two courses wit amazing professors that solidified my decision to become an educator. After two years, I transferred to UC, Irvine as a Spanish major and graduated with my B.A. in 2001. After earning my degree I immediately began a Ph.D. program at UCI with the hopes of becoming a college professor. After instructing Spanish courses to undergraduates for two years while grad school and passing my master's exam, I realized that the life of a professor was not for me. While teaching the Spanish classes at UCI, i saw the stark contrast between the types of relationships I built with undergrads, versus the type of relationship the graduate students had with students. I knew that closely interacting with students and getting to know them on a personal level was truly gratifying for me. I also began to realize that if I were to become a professor, a majority of my time would be dedicated to research, not building relationships and that classroom time would mostly be taken up by high-brow academic conversations with graduate students revolving around theories, and not putting those into practice.
It was at this point I decided to shift gears and reassess my personal and career goals. I decided that because I enjoyed teaching and interacting with students so much, i would dedicate myself to high school teaching. Surprisingly, it wasn't as hard of a decision to make to leave a prestigious Ph.D. program as I thought it would be, because is was truly listening to my heart and following my passion. I entered the teaching credential program at Cal State, Long Beach in August of 2004, and approximately 1 week later interviewed and was offered the position as a Spanish teacher at MVHS through the intern program that existed at the time. This allowed me to simultaneously earn my teaching credential while being employed as a full-time teacher. I earned my single-subject credential in Spanish in December of 2005.
While I have always been one to cheer for the underdog, and call out inequities I see occurring around me, I found a true passion for Social Justice as I began to teach in the AVID program 5 years ago. Having been born, raised and gone through pretty much the same system and neighborhood as my students, it was surprising to me that many of my AVID students were not having the same positive experience at school as I had. This was especially poignant to me as my Junior AVID class is composed of mostly Latino students,sharing the same ethnic background as me. As their teacher and adviser I began to hear stories of inequities on campus they were experiencing both in accessing a rigorous curriculum, as well as while sitting in their classes. These included being denied access to certain courses, and not being provided academic and social support by their teachers, especially for those exhibiting lower achievement. This is when my passion for Social Justice and trying to fight for marginalized students on our campus became a priority to me. I could to sit back and turn a blind eye to this inequity after becoming aware of it, and began doing as much as I could to help support those (and all) students. Because this has become such a large part of who I am, both personally and professionally, when I decided that I wanted to return to graduate school to focus on education and educational leadership, I looked for institutions that had a theoretical base in Social Justice. I wanted to "arm" myself with as much knowledge and tools possible to continue fighting for equity of all students on campus, but especially those who find themselves at the margins of our school. Luckily I found that institution an hour away from where I live and work. I am currently a candidate at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the Principal Leadership Institute (PLI) where I will graduate with an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership and a Tier 1 administrative credential in 2014. I hope to use my degree and credential to be a ble to obtain an administrative position where I can use my Social Justice foundation to continue fighting for equity for not only the students in my classroom, but for all stunts across campus.
School
Mission Viejo High School: 25025 Chrisanta Dr. Mission Viejo, Ca. (949) 837-7722
2013-2014 Enrollment: 2,453; 57% Caucasian, 20% Latino, 12% Multi-Ethnic or declined to state; 6% Asian and 5% is a mix of ethnicities (African-American, Filipino, Pacific Islander and Native American)
MVHS was built in 1966 and is situated in the city of Mission Viejo in south Orange County, Ca. It is in a suburban area composed of mostly middle and upper-middle class families. The demographics of the school are representative of the larger community, with the majority of residents being Caucasian. The school has many students who are children and grandchildren of MVHS alumni, giving the school a sense of tradition and community. MVHS has an excellent reputation known for its strong academic programs as well as stellar sports and arts programs both within the city, and the larger community context. This is a result of being recognized as both a Blue Ribbon School and a California Distinguished school on multiple occasions, having a long-standing acclaimed International Baccalaureate and Model United Nations programs, award-wining Art & Drama departments and a reputation of having one of the premier football programs in the county. This is just a sampling of some of the elements that drive our strong reputation, and the list goes on.
While all of the above mentioned programs drive our reputation, there are still concerns that need to be addressed on our campus, especially in relation to marginalization. The first of these is the lack of diversity as is apparent in the demographic make-up of our school. Many students feel they are invisible if not part of one of the outstanding programs on campus, and this seems to be incrementally compounded if they are part of an ethnic minority group on campus. Having grown up and gone to school in the same community, I can relate to these students as I was never a "superstar" in anyone area, but a very "average" student, who many times felt isolated in a school filled with people that didn't always "get me". Additionally, teaching AVID has given me the opportunity to hear many of our Latino students express their frustrations of not having any activities, clubs or programs that reflect who they believe they are. While there is not much that can be done about who moves into our neighborhood, we can certainly foster a community where diversity is recognized and appreciated and ensure that all students feel a connection to the school resulting in a positive eating experience for everyone.
Project Pages
Project 1: Curriculum Leader, World Languages
Project 2: Emergency Reunion Station
Project 3: Fostering a College- Going Culture
