Biography of Felix Alvarado

by

Felix Alvarado

Former Editor , Nuestra Voz de North Texas.  Simply, we are telling it like it is.  We 

write most of our articles.  We write on issues and people that would never get 

mainstream attention.  At the moment we are emphasizing the issue, Quienes 

Somos, Who Are We.  Some may agree, some may disagree on who we are.  In this issue, there is no middle ground.   

My Teacher experience started in the Fort Worth ISD at Trimble Tech HS.  From 

there I went to William James MS as Assistant Principal.  I retired from that 

position. 

Of all that I have accomplished I am proudest the most of my classroom 

experience.  Teaching 9th Graders was a lot of fun.   But the sense of anticipation 

and elation was attending graduation and watching my freshmen graduate from high school.  It was all about motivating students to graduate from high school. Being an administrator was just plain never ending hard work.   The number one task was handling disciplinary problems.   This usually created the necessity to contact parents.   There were also many parents that came by to speak about their children.  If I got to the school at 7 a.m., there were parents knocking on my door. If I stayed late there were parents in the office.   If I came in to work on Saturday, there were parents knocking on the door .   I could not turn anyone away.   I spoke so much Spanish that some days, I would wonder if I had spoken any English at all that day. 

I went to Houston to work at Community  Education Partners (CEP) as a Local 

Community Instructional Leader (LCIL).   All students who  were placed in an 

alternative education program  from the Houston ISD were placed  at CEP .  What I learned at CEP was that  the teachers who told me in my first year of teaching that kids responded well to being treated with respect were correct.  After CEP I went back to the classroom as a World Geography teacher at Sunset High School in Dallas ISD.  I found out that it takes a while to  get back into the rhythm of being a classroom teacher .

My education experience started in the military.   In every assignment I had there were always people that needed to be trained to perform their job competently.   I had many challenging assignments in the military but the assignment to the Military Airlift Command (MAC) Inspector General Team was the most challenging. As an inspector I  reported on the ability of Air Force units to accomplish their mission in accordance with  Force policies and directives.   I had a concurrent responsibility, training while inspecting.   It was not a matter of saying, "This is wrong", but rather "This is how you do it right".

In the classroom and as an administrator , I always took a global view of education and tried to discover why our students were not performing as well as I thought they could.  I kept my ears open and took notes.   I kept my eyes open and took notes.  For too long we have accepted marginal performance as satisfactory even outstanding.  In every school there are teachers who know what is wrong and how to fix it.  The answers are there.   We just have to let people exercise their creativity and initiative and our schools will be the model, not just for Texas but for the world.  

Biography

Military

Retired US Air Force Chief Master Sergeant

Veteran US Army, Staff Sergeant, Vietnam Combat Veteran

Seaman Apprentice, US Naval Reserve

Education

Administrator Certification, Principal, University of Texas at Arlington (Expired)

Teacher Certification, History and Government, University of Texas at Arlington

Master of Public Administration, Troy University Bachelor of Science, Business and Management, University of Maryland

Associate of Applied Science, Avionic Systems Technology, Community College of  the Air Force