golo editor's blog

meet, "teech"

Published Feb. 19, 2009
Views: 693

 

This week’s GOLO profile is with an extremely dedicated teacher, devoted father and closet Michael Jackson fan. He goes by “Teech.” I had a chance to chat with Teech during one of his breaks last week and even though students were yelling in the background, it was just like talking to an old friend. Meet, Teech!

 

Angela: I know being a teacher is challenging. What gets you through the tough days?

Teech: Oh wow. Teaching middle school, I don’t have too many tough days. I may have a day where a lot is going on but being in middle school I haven’t had any major kinds of issues.

 

Angela: What do you enjoy most about teaching middle school students?

Teech: You can’t teach middle school without having some sense of humor. I don’t know how many times I’ve had to turn my back to hide the fact that I am about to crack up at something they’ve said and sometimes you can’t hide it because funny is funny. I may just have to say: “Let’s not talk about that in the classroom.” I would say these kids are a trip.

 

Angela: Is there still a level of innocence with this particular age group?

Teech: There is, but it’s on different levels. Here in Cumberland County we have sixth through eighth grades. I’ve taught all three. Sixth graders are still the kids. You see that from the very beginning. They have a period of adjustment. A lot of things are innocent. This is their first time changing classes and using lockers so it’s a big period of adjustment. It takes ¾ of the year for them to get acclimated.

 

Angela: What about seventh and eighth graders?  

Teech: 7th grade is a serious time of trying to find themselves. They don’t know if they want to be kids anymore. Things can be totally immature. They laugh at anything. The girls cry. The boys don’t know how to show their affection. They hurt feelings. They go together for 2-3 days then break up. And we as teachers are supposed to guide them through this.

But you can see a big difference in them at the end of the year.

8th graders are in a mixed-world, trying to get it together. They’re at the top. Then at the end of the year they start thinking about going to the bottom of the totem pole again.

So many have come back to me after moving on to high school saying they wish they were still in middle school.

 

Angela: There’s still some “safety” is middle school. Do you think that’s why they want to come back?  

Teech: Yep the whole concept is about providing the alternate family so they feel they can come to us with issues to help them develop. It’s a whole well-rounded thing.

A lot of schools don’t focus on that.  I went to UNC-Greensboro and it’s considered to be on of the better colleges for education. They taught the middle school concept when a lot of school systems weren’t really using it. They were on the junior high format with less interaction.

 

Angela: What’s the difference?

Teech: When I was here growing up it was the junior high concept which is like a mini-high school. We are now evolving to a family concept where the students have a connection with teachers and teams and principals. No one is estranged.

 

Angela: Do parents value that?

Teech: Oh yes. When we have students with issues, teachers are their outlet. Being a coach and teacher and black male, I’ve had parent’s conference with me and say things like “My child’s dad is in Iraq, can you check up on him and make sure he’s alright?”

 

Angela: That’s a lot of responsibility in addition to teaching.

Teech: My wife is a teacher too. She teaches third grade. My title is teacher but I’m a counselor, coach, father, and mother…all of these things pulled together.   

 

Angela: You wrote the cutest blog on the last day of school last summer about taking care of what you called “honey do’s” and “daddy pleases.” Tell me about some of your recent daddy-pleases.

Teech:  The latest thing is my daughter wanted a Nintendo DS. She had been wanting one for over a year and I had not gotten it. She’s been exceptionally well in school. I told her if she made straight A’s I’d get her one. She worked really hard and kept me abreast of what she was doing. She ended up getting All A’s and one B.

 

Angela: Oh NO!

Teech: She was torn up about it. I thought about it and talked to her and said “I am going to buy this because I don’t want you to feel like in order to do well in school you have to count on getting a reward.” I told her she should work hard and make good grades because she’s capable, not because she’s going to get treated. We talked a good while about it

And I bought it. I told her it was because I loved her.

 

Angela: That was a good lesson.

Teech: Yeah. She likes school. I teach seventh grade and my son is in seventh grade. He’s struggling at the moment but I’m working with him. I grew up being a pleaser and made straight A’s most of my elementary, middle and high school years.  It’s hard for me to see him have so much ability and potential and he’s not putting forth the effort. As teachers, that’s hard for us to deal with. I know he has it rough at home but the expectations have to be met.

 

Angela: Tell me about your wife.  

Teech: My wife is the smartest person I know. She’s working on her doctorate. In order to pay for all of this beautiful education, she teaches workshops in the summer teaching math to other teachers. While she’s gone I have to maintain the house.

 

Angela: How does that work for you?

Teech: In the very beginning, I don’t know if she just didn’t feel secure with me but she would cook a week’s worth of food and we’d go out to eat and she’d have reminders written all over the place and I would say ”Baby I got it, go do your thang.”

She’d come back and see that things were better than she left. Now she just goes. She just told me last night that she’ll be gone for 5 weeks during the summer.   

 

Angela: Are kids as disrespectful as we are led to believe, or do they get a bad rap?

Teech: They don’t get a bad rap. I honestly believe it’s true. It’s sad to say but even with my own kids. I don’t know if we’ve become too sensitive as a culture because everything is labeled. When I was growing up you were either smart or slow. Whatever title you had you still knew to say “yes ma’am, no ma’am or Thank-you.” You wouldn’t dare confront adults.

 

Angela: Are you always on?

Teech: Being a teacher, it doesn’t leave you. I hear some child being disrespectful in the store and I want to correct them. My wife and I have to tell each other “It’s not your job.”

 

Angela: You mentioned growing up in the 80’s when we went off topic a bit. What was great about that?

Teech: Oh wow? One of the things I really enjoyed was the expression of music. From the golden age of hip hop I can remember growing up watching Night Tracks. It came on late nights on Fridays and Saturdays and we would stay up for hours just to see a Michael Jackson video or to see Prince. They always showed it at the end of the hour so I had to sit through a lot of Madonna and Hall & Oates so I love the 80’s music. And even when I got to college I found other forms of music I really enjoyed too.

 

Angela: Michael Jackson, huh? Can you do the routine to the Thriller video?

Teech: I got it down pat. And my daughter knows it. Any time Michael Jackson comes on my kids are like: “Oh, God, watch out for daddy.”

(We both laugh)

When I put the TV on the 80’s music channel I just look at my daughter and I can name the artist, the song, the name of the album and the year it was released without even looking.

 

Angela: You really are good.

Teech: Well, she’s doing it now with her music. And I’m like, “Of course you know it, the song came out yesterday!”

(We laugh again)

 

Angela: I was a huge MJ fan back then too. Did you have the thriller jacket? 

Teech: I had the jacket with zippers, parachute pants and the glove.

 

Angela: Not the glove! We might have to have a dance-off.

Teech: I don’t think you want any of this. I’ll take on all comers

(More laughter, but I know he can’t touch me if it really happened)

 

Angela: What do you like about GOLO?

Teech: I discovered GOLO in class while looking at the weather. And I was like, what is this GOLO? So I just clicked on it and started looking through the blogs. I found people to be so funny. I love humor so that just jumps out at me.

 

Angela: You seem to even get along with the people no one gets along with.

Teech: People call me the grease, because I like to keep everything smooth. I don’t like ruffling feathers. Whatever it takes to make things go well, that’s what I do. I like to keep stuff light-hearted. I like to talk some trash especially with Duke/Carolina coming up. I get hated for it but I love it. I’m a Dukie.

 

Angela: Tell me something most people wouldn’t know about you.

Teech: Oh, let’s see. If you looked at me and didn’t know me right off the bat and I told you I liked opera. You might be shocked. I’ve been to Broadway and seen the Phantom of the Opera. My favorite musical is Singing in the Rain. I love Fiddler on the Roof. That’s part of what UNC-G did. Through my scholarship I had to attend lots of cultural events and found that I liked it.

 

Angela: Do you feel many people miss out because they won’t try new things?

Teech: Part of my job is to try to expose my students to all different kinds of things culturally. I was surprised at how this generation listens to everything. I have Sirius Satellite radio and play various channels and the black kids are singing what the white kids like and vice versa. They even tolerate my classical. They just like music. When I teach about other cultures they have a more open mind because music has exposed them to so much.

 

Angela: What’s your dream vacation?

Teech: I want to go to Europe. I’ve never left the continental US—only been to the Bahamas. I want to go and sit in some old musty castle or walk down cobblestone streets and hillsides. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve gotta make it happen.

 

Angela: Do you have any GOLO favorites or would you like to send any shout-outs? 

Teech: I like about everyone. I even like the so-called real antagonistic people. I try to talk to Mocha every day. NCMom. She actually lives close to me and I met her at one of her church functions. I like Jolly Roger. We’ve been cutting up lately. His quotes of the day are like my Letterman Top 10!

 

Angela: What will you be doing 20 years from now?

Teech: I’ll be 55. I might be on the edge of retirement but I don’t really see myself leaving the school system. I don’t envision myself as a principal but working with kids counseling maybe. But I still need time to sail on my sailboat once I get it.

 

Angela: I think you’ll get it.

Teech: I think so too. My kids are already giving me their loose coins.

 

Angela: Thanks for the chat, Teech. It’s been fun.

Teech: Thank you. 

 

Bonus: Click here for a pic of Teech sporting his royal blue Snuggie!  

Filed under: People