Mr. Figueroa is a new teacher at Marco Island Academy, however he is far from new to the school. He is a proud MIA alumni, he first returned to the school as a substitute which eventually led to supporting Mr. Montgomery during his absence for some health related issues. He quickly became a main role in the class throughout the spring semester, causing his temporary job to become more permanent. He explains it at something he “fell into”
Though new to teaching, Mr. Figueroa came into teaching after earning his history degree at FGCU, with a focus on research. He says that his teaching reflects his academic passions. He also claims that teaching so far has been pretty considering the content has already been taught to him his whole college career. The only challenges he faces are keeping everyone on task, however he says, “If they get a little distracted it’s okay, as long as they hit their deadlines.”
Having graduated from MIA he already knew most staff at the school. He knew Ms. Pisculli and Mr. Ginther from his graduating class and their surprise and support in seeing him again helped him pursue this career with much more passion. “A lot of my former teachers were excited to see another alumni come back and take on the role of teacher”, he says.
Mr. Figueroa says that adjusting to a leading role has been a sort of struggle for him as he has not done anything like this in the past. He also thinks that others may believe that teaching is a sort of “fallback job” however he could not think this is further from the truth. He believes that to be a teacher you have to be fully committed to the role and helping the children learn.
For Mr. Figueroa teaching isn’t just something that he does to make money, he does this with the purpose to really impact the kids and make a difference in the world. For him, teaching at MIA is his passion, “I wouldn’t be teaching if it wasn’t here” he says.
