Greeting our New Passionate Folklorico Dance Teacher, Mr. Garcia

Mr. Garcia is the new assistant for our school’s folkorico’s class. He was heavily influenced to come to Selma’s folkorico’s program because of how much he admired it. “I really liked the program and thought it was very strong,” said Mr. Garcia.
Choosing to become a teacher or assistant in Mexican Dance was very obvious in Mr. Garcia’s eyes. He explained how he has always had such a big passion for folklorico dancing. Mr. Garcia has been dancing for five years and began in the field as a teacher six months ago, but three months here at Selma high. Some expectations of Mr. Garcia this year was to travel with the class for competitions and to go to high school show offs with some classes. His favorite part about his job is that he teaches people who want to learn and are excited to learn. This is also one of the things that he enjoys when working at Selma High.
Mr. Garcia described how seeing people with energy and who want to dance makes his job of teaching them so much more enjoyable.
“Seeing people improve is also one of my favorite things about my job,” said Mr. Garcia. One of the harder things about Mr. Garcia’s job is not because of the students or the work, but more because of his age.
“I think my age makes my job a little bit more challenging.” explained Mr. Garcia. He explained to me that he is more on the younger side and how that can sometimes be difficult when he needs to be the teacher to the class compared to their friend. However, Mr. Garcia hasn’t had much of a problem with having to be a teacher more than a friend and explained how everything has been going pretty smoothly. For a typical day of being a folklorica assistant his day can vary.
“I sometimes assist teaching, demonstrating a new step, helping students who don’t understand something, taking over class, or even help Mr. Bustos with work,” said Mr. Garcia.
With being so new into the department it has been a little challenging for Mr. Garcia. “The hardest part about my job is time management with work and my personal life,” said Mr. Garcia. He explained to me how learning a new schedule can be difficult to adjust to your personal life, but once you are used to that schedule then it should be a lot less stressful.
An interesting fact about him is that Mr. Garcia grew up in Mexico and came to Fresno when he was 14. He also graduated from Sunnyside High School.
Right now for Mr. Garcia this job is a new experience altogether.