Mr. Dora, one of our school’s yard duties, has been working here at GEMS for 12 years. He described his first year working here as challenging. He had trouble working with middle school students and sometimes the insane.
Although there were some obstacles at the beginning of Dora’s career, the job also had elements of reward. Building relationships with students and staff felt rewarding to Dora. He recalled that the middle schoolers looked like high school students.
As a yard duty, Dora has some disciplinary responsibility. If students are participating in unsafe or inappropriate behavior, it would be reported. Consequences depend on the situation. Dora has faced many obstacles in his career such as students not following expectations and directions, and dealing with different behaviors and emotions. “But when you treat students like real people, it makes it easier to handle stressful situations.”
One thing Dora wished would change during lunch is to bring back music. They used to play music during lunch, but they took the speaker away. Dora commented that the music set the vibe. There was even a dance club! Music definitely made lunch a lot more fun. Dora does not only want the music to come back, but he wants students to participate in campus cleanup as a punishment for leaving trash or messes behind in areas for lunchtime.
At times students will have physical conflicts. In situations like these Dora usually places himself between the two students having physical conflict to protect the safety of both students. Dora didn’t always want to be a yard duty. He thought of two other career choices when he was younger.
One of the options was becoming a Marine Biologist because Dora loved to interact with marine life. Another dream job of his was to play in the NBA ( the San Antonio Spurs to be exact!). GEMS has been Dora’s home for the past 12 years. He’s built relationships with many parents and students. Some days can be stressful or a lot for him, but at the end of the day, it’s all worth it. Dora does it for the students.
