How it Began
The year I started teaching gas was $1.22 a gallon, Princess Diana died, “The Titanic” was released, the first Harry Potter book hit the shelves and google.com was registered as a domain name. It was 1997: my first year of teaching in a one-story, rural high school, in a classroom with one narrow window, no air conditioning and florescent lights that hummed.
I became a teacher because of a woman named Sue Welker, who was my English teacher at Salem High School in Plymouth, Michigan. First, Ms. Welker was the first woman whom I knew who used the title “Ms.” I remember not knowing exactly what it meant, but I knew that she was not a Miss or Mrs. and that was enough. Second, she let me read any book I wanted to. For me, this meant reading as many books as I could that were in the small non-fiction section of our small bookstore in town. This meant Hunter S. Thompson’s “Hell’s Angels,” Giselle Kirkland’s “Dancing on My Grave,” Ann Rule’s “The Stranger Beside Me” and Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road.” Ms. Welker wanted us to read, and we did. There were no tests over any of these books, but I remember what it was like to go to the bookstore to pick out my next book, to stay up late with my bedside light on and to read content that brought me into the adult world. The power to read — to consume and enjoy words — is the gift that Ms. Welker gave to me.
I started thinking about all of the stories that people have about teachers. In the news, there were stories about teacher shortages and “bad” teachers. When I polled my 150 students, only one person said that they “might” be interested in being a teacher. The truth of it is that teachers have a profound impact on our lives, so how was it that so few of my students were interested in the profession?
I decided to put some stories about teachers out into this space. In doing so, I learned a lot about teaching — what matters and what is forgotten. I spent days interviewing people about their teachers. Who is a teacher who made a difference in their life? What difference did that teacher make? How did they make a difference? During my interviews, my subjects became my teachers.
Since I started teaching, some things have changed: gas prices have gone up, new movies and books have been released, and Google now has 4 billion users. But, there are also things that haven’t changed: the florescent lights still hum and what really matters in our classrooms is still the same. It isn’t the latest education trends or pedagogical moves that matter the most to people years later. The moments that matter most are the subtle interactions that we have with our students and the spaces that we give them to explore and develop.
The good news is that if we hold these stories at the core of our work our teaching practices will never go out of style, and we will help the young people in our classrooms grow into the best version of themselves.
Interview About Teachers: What Really Matters Years Later
On Adam Brown
Amanda Kuo talks about Adam Brown, who was her theatre teacher at Newtown North High School, Newtown, Mass.
“I had a really great theatre teacher in high school. It was a public school, but he [Adam Brown] made theatre and arts seem like it was just as important as all the other subjects. He incorporated critical thinking into that work as well, but he also did a lot to make it a place where people who didn’t feel like they fit in could just relax and be themselves for a few hours before they had to go home somewhere. He was a really good listener too. You could go to him and talk to him about how you wanted to grow personally and he would just listen and then walk you through it. I’m an actor now and I wouldn’t have done that would he not have made it such a good experience.”
Talking about Mrs. Skiles who taught 2nd Grade teacher at Hiller Elementary Madison Heights, Mich.
“I had recently moved from India and I obviously came into this very new environment, but she [Mrs. Skiles] never looked at me any differently or treated me differently. She recognized that I had a lot of potential. She always pushed me to go for that potential even if I wasn’t comfortable doing so. For example, I remember everyone wasn’t at the level of reading chapter books and she could see that I could do it. She gave me Secret Garden and said, “You can do it. Read it.” Her believing in me and pushing me to do a lot of things...math, taking on the role in the class play. I never tried to be her class pet, but she definitely took a very great interest in making sure that I succeeded. Now that I think about it, it all stems from her. The fact that I am such a good reader is because of her.”
On Monica
Ella Sabino talks about Monica, who was her high school English teacher in Porto Seguro, Brazil.
“I really didn't like literature too much before her [Monica]. She was really in love with what she was teaching. She would always talk about poets and say, 'My dream is to meet this person.' [They were all] dead poets."
Alonzo Blackshear talks about Mr. Grzegorski, who was his English Teacher at East Kentwood High School, Grand Rapids, Mich.
“He [Mr. Grzegorski] was a very great man. He definitely helped bridged the gap between teacher and student for me. He made me feel accepted. He made me feel as though the points I brought up were valid...that I was valid as a person. I could just talk to him. I am from a low-income family so being able to have him help me get into a situation where I can completely change my life really helped me. He encouraged curiosity and encouraged us to step out of comfort zones and push boundaries. I went in and told him about all the worries I had about getting into schools. He definitely pushed me to go out...he reassured me that there was nothing to lose.”
On Mr. Furlow
Aastha Dharia talks about Mr. Furlow, who was her Biology teacher at Novi High School in Novi, Mich.
“He [Mr. Furlow] was very open-minded. On a base-level he taught me Biology, but he also helped us get involved in other things. He was the original person who helped us get a program (hEARt: harnessing the power of peer support) into the high school. He used to teach a social dialogues class, and he was very big on making sure that we cared about academics, but also making sure that we were taking care of ourselves. He wanted us to be aware of the fact that it is more than just school that encompasses the world.”
Ed Penet talks about a nun who was his teacher for fourth grade at St. Ambrose Catholic School, Detroit, Michigan.
“She let me help decorate the classroom at the beginning of the school year so I designed all the bulletin boards and painted the chalkboard. It was probably one of the first intensely creative challenges I’ve ever had in my life. Since then I have been involved in creative pursuits all my life. It got me launched on my creativity. It was the start. It was my first challenge.”
On Ms. Hendricks
Samara Miller talks about Ms. Hendricks, who was her English teacher at American Heritage School in Plantation, Florida.
“She [Ms. Hendricks] encouraged me to think outside the box. A lot of the concepts were abstract and it really taught me to look at the world in a new way. She forced us to break the mold. I was so used to writing a structure and everything had to follow a set of rules and she told us to forget all that and start over. I think that transcending writing and it’s in my everyday life now.” - Samara Miller
Kathy Tuta talks about Mrs. Risbeck who was her third grade teacher at Canfield Elementary School in Canfield, Ohio.
“She [Mrs. Risbeck] was very involved with the students and she would do things after class with us like build castles out of cake and cut up pomegranates, which nobody even knew about back then. She was just very caring. She didn’t run out when the bell rang at the end of the day and she encouraged people to stay.”
On Louise Williamson
James Marcum talks about Louise Williamson who was his choir teacher at Belleville High School in Belleville, Michigan.
"I considered her [Louise Williamson] my second mom. We were actually in the middle of doing Guys and Dolls and I was Nicely Nicely Johnson. For whatever reason I could feel all this pressure on me. It was not just pressure from the show, it was pressure from friends, and I started to get really sad. I went out to her and said, "I can't, I can't." So we went out into the lobby. She actually just let me crawl up into her lap and cry. And then I was good and I was like, 'Let's go back to work.' She opened her heart and said this person needs something and I am going to do that. So, big moment."
Morgan McCaul talks about Oz Rinckey who was her art teacher at Lakewood High School in Lake Odessa, Michigan.
“He [Oz Rinckey] had this side room where he let me eat lunch and have student meetings. It was my safe space at school. He opened up his classroom outside of the context of taking his class. He opened it up to my friends who started a GSA and he was the only sponsor in the school who would be willing to do something like that. He was just really, really involved.”
On Tom Dodd
Harold Kirchen talks about Tom Dodd who was his teacher at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
"I took two classes from him [Tom Dodd] back in '69 and '70. One was Creative Thinking and one was Creative Problem Solving. The outside the box approaches that he espoused were very useful later in life for carpentry and woodworking where I would have to come up with creative solutions and that's sort of one of my specialities."
Mekhi Williams talks about Miss Carson who was his fourth grade teacher at Carkenord Elementary in New Baltimore, Michigan
“She [Miss Carson] helped me through a lot of problems as a child when I was going through a lot of stuff...being bullied a lot. She sat me down and told me that I would be ok that I had a bright future ahead of. The kids are going to bully me now, but eventually they would want to be my friend. She brought me out of my shell as a child. I was crying one day and she brought me into the classroom and talked to me one on one. She told me it was going to be alright.”
On Mrs. Hixson
Priti Shah talks about Mrs. Hixson who was her English teacher at Cleveland High School, in Cleveland, Tennessee.
"She [Mrs. Hixson] tried to slow me down. She said, 'Try reading James Joyce. This is going to challenge you.' She opened up a slower deeper processing of the language in every sentence. She was also personally really inspiring. She took classes during the summer. She made me feel like she deeply thought of this as a profession and she really cared about every student."