Profesor Oscar Sarmiento may be a new teacher in the district, but he’s used to new endeavors.

The Spanish teacher was born in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico – a border town on the opposite side of the border to El Paso, Tx. Sarmiento credits the location of his home city for his bilinguality, saying that he “could just go across.”

Eventually becoming a student in Texas, Sarmiento discovered his love for teaching.

“When I was in Texas as a 7th grader, I was learning English as a second language because I didn’t know English that much so being in middle school in Texas, they taught me how to properly speak the language,” he said.

By having to extend his knowledge of the English language, Sarmiento found how much of an effect teachers have on students.

“As I was learning English, the teacher had me stay after school and they would pay me for it. They would pay me to tutor my classmates and so that’s where I got the idea.  I love just the fact that I get to do something for someone else and just teaching them English at the same time as learning English but the more I knew the more I could help. It was fun,” he said.

This first experience helped Sarmiento develop his passion of teaching others. 

“I also worked in 1995 after I came to Cleveland. In ‘95, I worked during the summer—it was a summer program—and I was helping students with math and I loved mathematics. […] Once again, that kind of got me going to the idea ‘Maybe when I go to college, that’s what I want to do’.”

After serving as a student teacher at Mayfield in 2001, Sarmiento’s first stop was at Chagrin Falls High School.

“I was at Chagrin for a year and a half. I was subbing in for half of the year and then I stayed another year after that and I did amazing things there. I coached lacrosse—just helped them with anything they needed,” he said.

Sarmiento wanted to help however he could with activities at Chagrin Falls.  He said, “I was a freshman student club adviser, Chess Club adviser, Spanish Club adviser—I mean I did so many things that helped me later on for my future.”

Sarmiento then moved on to Bedford High School where he taught for three years.

“After Bedford High School, I had to relocate because I was looking to teach upper level Spanish. At this point I was still teaching Spanish 1. It was just brand new in my career so I was hoping to teach upper level—like AP or advanced Spanish.”

He was offered a job at Aurora Middle School, which he later took, and spent nine years at the school.  He described it as “fun being there.”

He said, “I moved to Aurora and I was there for nine good years at Aurora Middle School. In this case, it wasn’t truly upper level Spanish but I was given a chance to—during those nine years there were some years when I could go to the high school and teach one class, upper level. So there was one class high school and then the rest was middle school.”

Sarmiento also served as a soccer coach during his entire tenure at Aurora, as well as a track & field coach for seven years.

Now, he’s at Mayfield. His fourth stop as a full time teacher, there is one “big” adjustment.

“It’s big—compared to where I have taught before. Chagrin is small. Bedford is a little bigger than Chagrin. But Mayfield is a big school.”

When he isn’t teaching, some of Sarmiento’s hobbies include hanging out with friends and playing in a soccer league for “middle aged men”. 

Regardless, his heart lies with teaching.

“I love to teach. I think it’s not a job, it’s a profession—a great profession,” Sarmiento said. “Being able to help—and not only help, but you are providing so much for students that sometimes they just need to talk to someone and so therefore you can be a guide, you can be a mentor besides just teaching your subject. That’s the fun part.”