For Mr. Jeffrey Vigil, mathematics is more than just numbers – it’s a passion that fuels creativity and curiosity, where every problem is a doorway to infinite solutions.
He graduated from California State University Stanislaus, which is located in Turlock, graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in mathematics. After graduating, he started his teaching career, which he has been doing for seven years and continuing strong.
He was born and raised in Turlock about two hours away from Porterville. Growing up, he loved watching and playing football and basketball. Outside of school, he goes to the gym as much as possible, spends time with his family, watches movies, and plays video games on his PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch.
As the youngest in his family, he was pushed to his potential as a student. His family is his biggest inspiration, as they have sacrificed so much to help him get to where he is. His older brother pushed him even more and Mr. Vigil is grateful because it helped him fulfill his full potential. His grandparents are another inspiration for him. Sadly his grandmother recently passed away. Even though it has been a difficult time for him, he always made her proud.
As a student, Vigil was one of the best. He was driven to succeed no matter how impossible it seemed. He graduated as Salutatorian of his graduation class for being ranked second. As the youngest member of his family, he was also the first to go straight to a four-year university. Being the first to go to college in his family was an incredible experience for him but it also came with some concerns. His biggest concern about going to college was financial aid. He did not come from the wealthiest background so this concern was something that always worried him.
“I had a lot of questions about financial aid and all that stuff and we just had to kinda figure it out as I went,” Vigil said.
He decided to go to a four-year university. He was extremely nervous because he had no one to go to for advice. It was just him figuring it out and learning from those around him.
“It was scary, but it was definitely worth it, he said.”
As Vigil got older, he grew a liking for math that grew exponentially in middle school when he was introduced to algebra. He always loved learning about math. Numbers were something that made sense to him. He got so good at his middle school math that he was able to help other students understand it.
He would complete his work and then go around the classroom to help those who struggled to understand. While he helped students, he would constantly receive compliments that he explained everything really well.
Even though Vigil is seen being a naturally smart person, it was not earned that easily. It took a lot of dedication, hard work, and a lot of practice to learn math.
“Doing extra homework problems that one assigned, spending hours on the weekends doing math, especially when I got to college,” he said about what allowed him to succeed in math.
As a result of loving math, Vigil gravitated towards becoming a math teacher.
Vigil started teaching at Pacheco High School in Los Banos. He worked there for three years before moving to Granite Hills High School in 2021 where he has been ever since. He started at Granite Hills with Integrated Math I and Integrated Math II classes.
In his second year at Granite Hills, Mr. Vigil picked up Integrated Math 3. In his third year, he picked up Integrated Math III (Honors) and PreCalculus. Being fairly new to teaching, he was not your original new high school teacher. He was ready and willing to push students to their full potential. He was well-organized and worked really hard. But he was not always like this – especially with his organization.
During his final years at Pacheco High School, COVID-19 pushed the world into a total lockdown, leaving students without an education. His final year was entirely online education. It was a tough year for students but for teachers too.
Many had to learn how to use technology for all their work. Vigil, being a teacher, saw the importance of being organized in a time of chaos. So he started to create everything digitally. He was able to digitize everything, which made teaching for him so much smoother.
“I feel like I’ve become a better teacher since then, but the pandemic in itself made me change a lot of the ways I handle my notes, and my lessons,” Vigil said.
During his second year at Granite Hills, he earned his Master’s Degree in mathematics at the University of Northern Arizona. That very same year, he became the head of the math department at Granite Hills. With all these achievements, he also started to teach college classes.
With all the classes and other programs Vigil was involved with, he had to learn to balance work and life. Being organized is the biggest thing that he learned throughout his teaching career. He uses his phone to make daily lists of what needs to be done. He is thankful for websites like Google Classroom, which saves most of his lessons from past years so he can look at them later on.
Vigil is a teacher who likes to push his students to make them successful, not just in math, but also in the real world. He enjoys the relationships he builds with students but what he enjoys the most about teaching is seeing the moment students suddenly start understanding the subject. The happiness that students feel after struggling for some time is something he looks forward to every single day.
“When kids finally get it and they’re excited about it, that’s like my biggest win as a teacher,” he said.
For students to understand what is happening in the classroom, teachers need to do more than just know the material. Teachers need to be excited to teach it and pass that excitement on to the students.
That is exactly what Vigil does. He brings his enthusiasm for math to his students. He has creative methods to create an engaging environment like singing the quadratic formula song (ask him to sing it to you), which helps students memorize the formula in a catchy and creative way.
Vigil’s teaching is all about repetition. Some students may find this a little boring but repetition is important, especially in math where there are a lot of ideas to learn. Repetition helps students understand the idea but also memorize it.
Aside from math, he wants his students to leave his class with confidence and knowledge that he pushes every single one of them because he cares about their success. Aside from understanding math in his classroom, he would also like to see his students leave knowing how to problem-solve and think critically.
“My biggest thing is you just have to try. If you are not getting the right answer the first time, it’s okay.” Vigil said.
Editor’s Note: Jose Nava has been in Mr. Vigil’s math class for four years.
