"Mrs. Facilitate is a great teacher! In the first half of the year our teacher, Mrs. R---- left because she was tired of us, then we had a sub until October. We were all rude and tried to get rid of her like we did Mrs. R-----, but she never gave up. In fact, we learned. She has helped me out a lot even through the hard times she had with her family. No matter what, she cared about her students first. She is my favorite teacher and I'm sure she is other's favorite too. I believe that if she stays she could help many more."
"In my opinion, having multiple teachers this year has made it hard for my classmates to give respect to people who just get thrown into the position of being a sub, giving orders and sitting on the computer while we have to do book work. But Mrs. Facilitate changed up everything and tried to make class work interesting and fun! We love Mrs. Facilitate!"
"Mrs. Facilitate is one of a kind! You can't get a good teacher like her around these parts! She does everything by the book, and she makes learning fun, but serious at the same time. She is the kind of teacher that children would want to come to school for. She makes students want to learn. Personally, I don't like learning the old fashion way. I am tired of teachers being boring, but Mrs. Facilitate is not a boring teacher. I have learned to become a good essay writer, a sufficient reader, and a user of big vocabulary. BAM! Bet you don't know where that came from. That is called a hook—something that Mrs. Facilitate taught us. Bet you didn't see that coming! That was just a taste of the good things she has taught us. Letting go of a good teacher is not a good idea. Make a good decision for the sake of the higher education of our students."
Every time I read the letters written by my students, I laugh and cry all at the same time. I laugh because I remember all the great times we had at Key West High School, but I cry because I really miss seeing the beautiful faces of all of my students. To me, there are no bad students. They are just good students disguised as bad students. Inside of every human being there is a heart. Some students have never known love and respect. Adults have taken advantage of their positions of power, and forgotten that children must be served. We must serve them with dignity and respect. The ONLY way to teach respect to students is to give respect consistently, even when respect is not given back.
I started my position as 10th grade English teacher in October, nearly three months after the school year started. A week before I started, I was laid off another teaching position for a juvenile delinquency school for girls. They closed their doors due to budget cuts. Well, I interviewed for the position, and the principal was reluctant to let me sit in on certain class periods. He wanted me to come during the honors classes, not the regular classes, particularly 5th period. I was swollen like I had swallowed a watermelon. I was in my 7th or 8th month of pregnancy with my youngest child. It was hard for me to walk because of the stress of the pregnancy, but I tried my best. I knew there was something special about this group of high school kids.
I sat and observed their behavior with the substitute teacher. They were wild, very wild. Even the honors classes were very untamed. They were filled with know-it-alls, snobby rich kids, wanna be thugs, prissy girls, and a wide variety of cultures. The students looked at me puzzled, wondering who this tall (I'm 5'11), big faced, wide nosed Black woman (I was the first Black English teacher, and only one of two Black women teachers in the building) was who was looking back at them expressionless. Although I didn't have the job officially, I knew that it was important that I keep on my "game face." My game face is one that is neither nice nor mean, but somewhere in between. You want to keep students guessing. You want to keep students wondering.
The principal explained that the previous teacher left the position to go back into the business world. Well, after observing this group of unruly children, I knew for a fact that she had been ran off. It was obvious. It took a special type of teacher to handle these loud, wise-cracking, i Pod wearing, my Dad is somebody important so don't mess with me, group of students. I could also see within their hearts, and knew that beyond the monster Halloween costumes were sweet little kids pretending to be something that they were not.
In fact, I remember my school days so clearly. It hasn't been a full 10 years since I graduated from high school, and I remember it like yesterday. I remember how I gave my 9th grade English teacher the look of death for a whole class period because she refused to issue extra credit for an assignment I wrote. She eventually buckled and gave me the extra credit, but that same passive aggression is what most students try to give teachers. As a child growing up on the south side of Chicago in the housing projects, we were known to bring weapons to school. A teacher could never be too careful with students because at any moment a life could be in jeopardy. My brother was a notorious gang member, my father was throwing up the Folks gang signs, and my girl cousins were doing the same. I even knew the secret handshake that my brother taught me. We were all headed down the road to nowhere. Just lost trying to find our way out of no way.
Teachers have to put up with so much more today than we dished out 10 years ago. However, I know every trick in the book, so my students were in for an unpleasant surprise. The quotes above are from my students who begged the principal and superintendent to save my job. I was only one of thousands of teachers laid off in Florida. Today you see teachers in California protesting these job cuts. Well, I got the pink slip because I was new to the district. It made no difference whether or not my students received the highest test scores on the Reading and Writing FCATs, the Bubba Network was far more important. It was hard leaving Key West because I left behind so many beautiful souls. However, I am satisfied with knowing that I was able to impact students in a positive way.
During that school year several things happened to me. I took a two month maternity leave for the birth of my son, and several months later my mother died. I was devastated, and had to travel up North to Michigan to bury her. I left my students, although I didn't want to leave their sides. They had already gone through 8-10 substitute teachers before I accepted the position. The first teacher deserted them, then there I was deserting them again. I had every intention of returning, but I had to get myself together emotionally and mentally before doing so. I finally returned two weeks after the funeral, and it was such a relief to be back home. My classroom was a home away from home.
I remember teaching my 3rd period class, and how gloomy the morning had been. My telephone rang, and it was my cousin in Chicago telling me about my mother passing away. I wanted to break out and cry, but I was strong. I held in all of my emotion, and I had to get air. I could see the look on my students' faces. They could feel my pain, some were in tears. This very moment I had talked about during a lecture on The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. I remember the discussion about the ego and what would you do if a killer broke into your house, threatened to kill all of your family, but offered you freedom if you left the country and never returned. Your family would be killed no matter which option you chose. Although the question was outrageous and received too much attention from parents and administrators, I needed to get them to thinking. So many students said they would die with their family because they couldn't stand to live without them. Others said they would leave the country and that self-preservation and freedom was more important. I told my students about my mother's illness and that she could die any day, and that I must always love myself enough to want to live. I would not kill myself because she was gone, but would move forward and stay strong. Well, two weeks later the same scenario played out before our eyes.
Respect has to be earned. As educators, we must show students how to respect us by always showing them respect. It was a struggle to get all of my students behaving in the right fashion. There was a serious battle, and I did not shoot back. They brought their rifles and machine guns, and I fought back with my heart. I knew that they were hurting inside. I knew they had been abandoned by other teachers who did not want to deal with them. I knew that some of them had never been respected by any adult in their lives. I knew that some suffered from low self-esteem. I knew some suffered from an overactive ego. I knew that every one of them needed somebody to care about them, and somebody who would never give up on them. Once my students realized that I was only trying to help them by changing their thinking, they started to respect me. They realized that when they yelled at me, they were only yelling into a mirror. Their thoughts and opinions about me were distorted based on every other teacher who had disliked them. Not only did I like every student I taught, but I respected them. Even the ones who rebelled to the last day, I respect them because one day they will open their eyes and realize the truth. Not every teacher is out to fail them. Not every teacher is mean and nasty. Not every teacher is a push over.
As teachers, we need to stand our ground and keep up the fight. We should never use the same weapons our students use on us. We should fight them back with respect, courage, and care. That's why the expectations for my behavior management program is C.A.R.E. it is important that we care about the students' needs first and foremost. If we get too caught up on how they hurt our egos, then we will never help students learn. When students love your class, that is when real learning occurs. If students hate your class, they will never learn. Expectations must be set in stone, and you must reinforce these expectations no matter what. You must treat every student with the same level of respect, even if they curse you out. Not saying put up with it, but point out how they are disrespecting you.
Sometimes ISS is necessary when every other tactic has been tried, but fails. On the second day I was there, my 5th period class decided to test me. Half the class decided to team up on me. So I had 14 students who refused to be quiet or sit down so that I could teach my lesson. The other 14 were trying to learn, and were fed up with the unruly students. So, in a calm voice, I asked them to please sit down and be quiet because that was the only way I could teach them. They laughed and yelled at me, and I kept my restraint. I walked over to the telephone, dialed the operator, and asked them to send back up. So all 4 of the principals walked into the classroom. Suddenly the class became as quiet as a mouse. Inside I chuckled because I knew they didn't take me seriously until that moment. In a calm voice, I explained to the principals that the students who were lined up at the door were not being respectful to me or their classmates, and they must leave at once. I had already lined them up and they were ready to go. The principals looked at me and looked at the 14 kids lined up. They said, "all of these?" I responded, "Yes, all of those students have disrespected me for the last time. I cannot teach if there is not silence. They refuse to sit down or be quiet and I have given them all of my warnings. Oh, by the way. They all owe me a 5-paragraph essay on the topic why it is important to be quiet while the teacher is teaching. This essay is due before they return to my class."
Students were steaming mad. Others started to weep like babies. Every student was suspended for at least one day. From that day forward, I didn't have too many problems out of 5th period. In fact, 5th period became my favorite period. I became their favorite teacher. Sometimes we have to take extreme measures to get their attention, but it is necessary if we plan to teach. If talking is going on while you are teaching, then there is NO LEARNING going on. Unless everybody in the classroom is on the same page, everybody is on the wrong page. Some students are learning only half of what is being taught. The other students are learning nothing at all. Respect is the root of success. If you respect your students and believe in them, they will respect you and believe in you. It never fails. In the end, my students excelled. I never gave up on them, and that is all that mattered.
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