When I decided to go into teaching, I had no idea of the impact that teaching and the students would have on my life. As a 22-year-old first-year teacher fresh out of Ohio University, teaching quickly became more than just teaching for me. My first group of students were 7th-graders at an inner city school district and a Title I school in Ohio. I learned so much with and from them. Being a first-year teacher is like being a first-time mother; you’re going to learn a lot through trial and error. Those 7th-graders are now in their mid-thirties, and I am still in touch with many of them.
College does not prepare teachers for all that comes along with teaching. With that first gig, if you don’t have mentor teachers and/or a strong administrative team to support you, you could be or feel a little “doomed”. I was 22, teaching 11- to 13-year-olds. College didn’t prepare me to be the teacher, mother, sister, friend, social worker, nurse, temporary enemy and disciplinarian that I found myself being. Not only did I have to balance wearing all of these hats for my students, I also had to make sure that I was teaching the SLCs (State Learning Competencies) … or the GLIs (Grade-Level Indicators) … or CCSS (Common Core State Standards); the name for state standards has changed more times than I can remember. These are the standards by which teachers should be teaching students. The current state standards (CCSS) are aligned to the Ohio State Graduation Tests (OST); the previously titled standards (SLCs and GLIs) were aligned to the previous state tests … from what I recall.
As a new teacher, I had all of these creative ideas and resources from which I could teach and make reading and writing appeal to my students; furthermore, there was already a script for me/us to use to teach in the school district in which I taught. This was back in the 2001-2002 school year. Fortunately, we were still able and encouraged to use the script (curriculum guide) at our professional discretion, not stifling our creativity and ability to engage students. In a way, the curriculum guide (script) was helpful to me as a first-year teacher because I had no teaching experience outside of student-teaching at Nelsonville-York Junior High School in Nelsonville, Ohio; therefore, it was nice to have something to turn to when I ran into the proverbial brick wall.
It was interesting experiencing education as a teacher compared to the way I did as a K-12 student and even as a college student. I always thought that all of the adults (principals, teachers, parents, etc.) were on the same side. I always thought that, as adults, everyone was mature and responsible. I didn’t realize that adults can be older kids. This wasn’t even something I learned in my first year of teaching; I began to realize it over time. I can take kids’ foolishness way better than I can take an adult’s foolishness. I expect kids to do … stuff that doesn’t make sense, but I have way less patience for adults, whether it’s my colleagues, my kids’ parents or other adults, in general.
Within the last few years, teachers are often being asked about their WHY. Why do we do what we do? (I think that’s a great question, by the way, because I do look at some professionals in many professional fields like: “Why are you here/there … really?”) I’ve worn many hats in my 20+ years of teaching. I’ve taught all grades of English from seven to twelve. I’ve been the advisor of the drill team, cheerleading, National Honor Society and senior classes. I’ve been the Dean of Students and the lead/coordinator of our summer school and credit recovery programs. (I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but that’s not even my point.) My point is that at the center of everything I’ve done in my career is my love for my students, whom I often refer to as “my kids”. My family, friends, and colleagues often comment that I’m one of the only teachers they know who keeps in touch with a huge number of her students (male, female, nonbinary, African-American, Asian, Indian, Caucasian, Hispanic, bi-racial, rich, poor, tall, short, big and small) for the rest of her students’ lives. YUP! I sure do!
Up until last year, I was genuinely excited about teaching and going to work every single day because of my relationship with my kids and my passion for writing and reading. Many of my students (current and former), friends, peers, colleagues, etc., need help with their writing, whether they realize it or not. No one wants to be embarrassed when they’re trying to write formally, or even informally, and their writing is full of capitalization, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, spelling errors, etc. Many people have too much pride to ask for help, not realizing that we all have areas of weakness.
Down through the years of my editing, proofreading and just reading online, a need exists for learning and/or producing properly written communication; additionally, if the focus or need isn’t on proper writing, the writing/communication definitely needs to be written in a way that people are able to understand and in a way that readers are and remain engaged, interested, etc, in whatever it is that the writer/speaker is trying to communicate. I remember one of my colleagues saying that she sees so many people get “bullied” online because of their spelling, writing, etc. I never thought of it as bullying, but I guess it could be called that if people are making fun of someone for making a mistake, whether they realize they made it, intended to make it, etc.
As an English teacher, I love being able to give my students a space to express themselves through their writing because (let’s face it) not many people write as much as they/we wrote when I was growing up, especially our youth (my biological children included). We did so much with paper and pens/pencils back in the 1980s. LOL! I remember being in church at Triedstone Baptist Church in Columbus, Ohio, reading my friends’ love letters from their boyfriends, and I would sit there and edit or critique the boys’ letters. I have notebooks packed away with stories that I wrote as an adolescent; they were a little “juicy” (drama), too! I’ll save that for a different blog.
Every year, my students’ first essay is a narrative essay, which is their life story. I always tell them that it doesn’t have to be true, but it has to be believable with the literary elements (characterization, setting, plot, etc.). I want to see how they write, but I also want to get to know them. It’s not an essay that is considered to be something that we should spend time on writing because that standard isn’t a standard on the OST. However, this type of writing means so much more to them (and to me in getting to know them). Introspection and reflection are important, whether it’s written/typed out or not.
Writing can be soothing for many people; it can help people come to resolutions on a variety of issues. It’s therapeutic. Many conversations in education revolve around the whole child and social-emotional learning, and writing is definitely a way for students and non-students to express themselves, even if no one else ever reads it. Many of my kids have experienced some big hurts (emotionally, mentally, and physically). Every year, these babies’ life stories bring me to tears, not all of them, but enough of them. They’re so strong, and I admire them at their young ages for their perseverance.
My students inspire me to be a better woman, teacher, and mother. They are a reminder that no matter what I face, I can go on. I think about them, their pasts, and their futures, and I can’t help but to be invested in them beyond high school. They need me, and I need them. Teaching isn’t just a career for me; it’s so much more. I’ve seen so many staff members and administrators come and go over the last 20 years from my current school and our district.
So many people ask me why I’m still in the classroom and at the same school since 2004. In all honesty, it’s not that I haven’t tried to leave the classroom. I applied to be in the Leadership Trainee program in my school district to be a principal back in 2006-ish and again in 2013, but I didn’t get into the program at either time. Then, last year, I applied and interviewed to be an Instructional Coach in my school district, but I messed that up by mixing up the time of the interview. Honestly, I don’t think I messed it up; I think it was God again blocking it. Well,… if you must know, “what had happened was” that I thought the email said that my interview was at 5:00, but it actually said “3:00”. The principal was super sweet and allowed me to interview a little later than the real scheduled time, but I have enough sense to know that missing the first interview time slot messed me up. Plus, there were some other factors beyond my control. Anyway, I didn’t get the job. All I can say is that God’s timing is everything (which is a whole other story)!
Although I have my Master’s degree in Education Administration and a Principal’s License in the state of Ohio, I should have never gotten my Master’s degree in Education Administration nor my Principal’s license. I never had the idea to go into educational leadership until I let other people tell me that I should go into administration because I was/am such a strong disciplinarian. (Honestly, I didn’t know that I wanted to be a teacher until the end of my sophomore year at Ohio University.) After graduating from college, I always said that, eventually, I wanted to teach college students and live in a big house on a hill like my favorite college professor, Dr. Marsha Dutton. That hasn’t happened … yet. Actually, I don’t even want to teach college anymore, either.
Last school year at work, I became frustrated and realized that I needed a shift. I’d been having this growing feeling of dissatisfaction within myself for years because I felt that I should be doing more and/or something different. Due to low state test scores, the path of teaching English started to take a turn that I didn’t really like. Of course, any time there is change, there is some resistance. I consider myself to be a life-long learner, so I am always excited about and interested in learning new things. I do a very good job of minding my business and focusing on my classroom, projects, programs, self-improvement, etc., at my job, so I don’t know what other teachers are doing in their classrooms. I just make sure that I’m teaching the state standards and engaging my students with relevant material on which they can apply state standards.
Our students’ test scores haven’t been the best in what seems like forever. Now, I know what I’m doing in my classroom to make sure that students are reading to comprehend and writing to show their understanding. There are different hoops to jump through for these state tests, so we’re having to implement “new” strategies to help the kids do better on the standardized state tests. I’m all for doing things that work, so I’m down to try anything! Fortunately, I’ve realized that I’ve already been doing a lot of what needs to be done to help the students perform better on their standardized tests. However, there are other factors that contribute to our low test scores, so we (administration, staff, community, parents, and kids) need to do a multitude of things to try to close the gap.
In the meantime, I don’t want to lose my students’ engagement/interest. I want to make sure that I’m pouring relevant information, skills, etc., in them for when they graduate from high school. I want to give them information and skills that they can use in college, the workforce, intellectual conversations, self-reflection, etc. I want them to pass the state tests; I really do, but that can’t be my main focus because I know that there’s more to their lives (before and after graduation) than state tests. I didn’t go into teaching to teach kids to pass a state test. Reading, writing, thinking, and speaking are bigger than that.
In April of 2023, I started my own editing business, KNotED by Kimani (not “knotted”). Out of the goodness of my heart and my passion for writing, I’ve been editing and proofreading (outside of my teaching job) before I even started teaching. It IS my pleasure! Therefore, I figured that because so many adults still need editing services, I need to offer these services. We get more serious about life in adulthood and wish that we would’ve paid more attention to certain things when we were in school (grade school and college), so here I am with my grown students in mind as they (and others) go on to become or continue to be professionals, entrepreneurs, educators, writers, and CEOs!
Teaching has been more than just a career for me; it's been a calling. My students have taught me invaluable lessons, and I've been privileged to be a part of their lives beyond high school. Starting KNotED by Kimani was a natural progression for me, as I recognized the need for proper written communication in various professional fields. My goal is to help individuals improve their writing skills and produce engaging content that resonates with their audience. Writing is a powerful tool, and I'm excited to continue my journey as an educator and editor!
We, as your kids, love you inside and out. Your understanding of the bigger picture of our lives before and after your class is and always will be what draws us to you. It connects us all. You impact us. You are a great person and educator and it shows in the lasting relationships we have with you. I wont go into what you did for me. You know; and i know. You remember us; and we will always remember and love you!