Greeting his students daily at the door, always making his students laugh, and

teaching in a way that makes it easy to learn, Senor Ruiz is a teacher loved by many of

his students. Senor Ruiz is the Spanish II and Spanish II Pre-AP teacher responsible for

teaching four classes a day. Senor Ruiz has many different teaching methods, one is using

the website Socrative which allows students to take online quizzes.

“I like using technology while teaching because I know the students like to use

it,” Ruiz said. “Socrative allows my students to see how well they know the material, and

I get to see what everybody is struggling on as a class.”

Another teaching method Ruiz uses is positive reinforcement with stamp cards.

Every time a student answers a question in class, makes a good grade on a test, or has

good behavior he or she gets a stamp. By the end of the 6 weeks, if students fill up their

stamp cards they will receive a 100-participation grade.

“Having the stamp card motivates me because I really want that 100 participation

grade, so I have been trying to participate more in class,” freshmen Hank Scott said. “The

stamp card honestly helps because I can see what I need to work on by answering the

questions Senor Ruiz asks.”

All of Senor Ruiz’s Spanish classes are also very interactive. Ruiz likes to ask the

students questions, encourages them to participate, and comes up with fun games that the

students use to learn the material.

“Students being able to answer my questions doesn’t only let me know what I

might not have explained well enough, but it shows them what they might not fully

understand,” Ruiz said. “I have found that interacting with the students makes it a more

relaxed classroom but at the same time causes the students to learn the material in a non

boring way.”

Now, what Ruiz is known for around the school is his backflips. Ruiz does a

backflip whenever a class quiz or test average is a 90 or above. He believes his backflips

motivate students to work even harder to get good grades so that they can watch him do a

backflip. Ruiz had the idea five years ago when his students were not doing well so he

offered to do a backflip if their grades improved. Once he did the flip their grades started

improving, and Ruiz has offered it ever since to his classes. Ruiz first learned backflips

when he was a cheerleader for Southern Methodist University. Not only do videos of

backflips appear on the students’ snapchat stories; but yes, there was indeed a video of

Ruiz doing a backflip on the local Dallas Story where other snapchat users throughout

Dallas could see it.

“It’s cool how my teacher can do a backflip,” freshmen Avery Penman said.

“They are exciting to watch, and I look forward to knowing if we get one after every quiz

or test.”

With that, Senor Ruiz is an excellent Spanish teacher loved by many well-taught

students.