UHCL alum’s passion for books ignites students, educators

June 30, 2017 | Jean Rudnicki

Spend a few minutes talking to University of Houston-Clear Lake College of Education graduate, Juan Gonzalez about his work and you’ll discover what it means to be passionate. Gonzalez, a third-grade reading teacher at Louis G. Lobit Elementary School in Dickinson Independent School District, will have you longing to dive into the nearest book.

 “When it comes to reading, because it is so critical, reading has to come alive,” he said. “Every other form of media in our world gets celebrated, whether video games or movies. They get trailers and people get excited about them. No one is getting excited about books. So that’s what I try to do.”

Gonzalez’s goal is to change the mindset so that reading is not: “Give me a summary, look for a main idea, give me a book report.” No. “Reading now has to be, ‘do it and then let’s talk about it,’ because that’s what reading allows us to do,” he said.

“Being a reading teacher I feel so lucky, because I get to teach about life. That’s what books offer, little insights to life and what we take away from them.”

It doesn’t hurt that Gonzalez has a natural knack for marketing and advertising, a field he once thought about going into. “I have that kind of brain where I’m always trying to, like, sell something. But now I get to sell knowledge. I am constantly marketing something to the students, or selling them something.”

And as passionate as he is about sharing his love of books and reading with his students, he is equally passionate about sharing teaching techniques with other educators, whether it is a particularly good lesson or just something really fun that he did, or even a good book he discovered. Via social media he has been able to connect with teachers not only across the nation, but internationally, as well. In fact, he has a following of teachers that he talks with almost daily. It was his Instagram postings that caught the attention of book publishing giant, Scholastic. They contacted Gonzalez and asked if they could feature him and his classroom in their online magazine.

Recent visits – he made two, one in September 2016 and then again in March 2017 – to the nonprofit Ron Clark Academy (RCA) in Southeast Atlanta made a huge impression on Gonzalez. The internationally recognized RCA is a “demonstration school” where visiting educators can gain professional development experience by observing best practices in action and participating in hands-on workshops. During one of the visits Gonzalez says academy founder and educator Ron Clark commented, “We want to make teaching fresh, young, sexy, and hot again because our students are not growing up to want to be educators.”

“So my goal is to help be part of that,” says Gonzalez. “To shine this new light where it’s not just ‘oh school’ or ‘oh that poor elementary teacher.’ It’s, ‘Oh my gosh. What an exciting place to be, what an exciting life to live.’ I want to shine a light on that, and help other teachers get there.”

With nearly 10 years of classroom experience he believes he can provide some guidance and help for other teachers to find their voice. “Because the way I teach doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right way, but it works because it’s me. I think if you teach like you, and you come from a genuine place, the kids will pick up on that and they’ll love it, too.”

Gonzalez says he realized the classroom was his destiny while still in high school and he enrolled at the University of Houston upon graduation, but a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma changed everything. Dealing with the frightening health setback made him hungry to pursue the things that had excited him before, and when the cancer went into remission he says he got his life back and began focusing on the things he wanted.

He chose UHCL to complete his degree because of its community-based program and counties-wide school connections. “I enjoyed my experience at UHCL. I feel like the courses there did a great job of putting us in the driver’s seat of being a teacher, and helping us understand the different things we were going to be challenged with as a teacher.”

He completed his internship in the Dickinson ISD and was hired right after graduation. “My third year in Dickinson I made Teacher of the Year, and every year after that I’ve been nominated, which is a huge honor.”

“My whole life has been working toward this – working to really perfect my craft and being the best that I can be, and in doing that I’ve been able to work with so many great people, and work with so many amazing students. It hasn’t always been picture perfect, but it’s been a really fun ride.”