Teacher Appreciate Done Right

Celebrating Teachers and Supporting Student Success: A Personal Reflection

In this episode, TD Flenaugh shares heartfelt stories and lessons about the importance of teachers in shaping lives, from elementary school to college. It’s a call to recognize ongoing teacher appreciation, foster collaboration, and empower parents and students alike to create environments for success.Key Topics:

• The lasting impact of inspiring teachers like Ms. Byler, Ms. Corr, Ms. Nelson,  and Mr. Beu.

• Practical strategies for students and parents to cultivate meaningful relationships with teachers.

• Lessons in writing, resilience, and navigating educational pathways from elementary to college.

• The importance of affirming potential, self-care, and growth mindset in education.

• Addressing current challenges faced by teachers and proposing ways to support their vital role.

• The significance of community collaboration in fostering student achievement.

• Reflection on personal experiences that highlight the power of intentionality, kindness, and advocacy in education.

• Encouragement to honor teachers beyond one week and to appreciate their contributions year-round.

 Resources & Links:

• The Rewrite Method

• Little Mobile Home on the Tundra

Connect with TD Flenaugh:

• Instagram

Let's honor our teachers every day and support their critical role in shaping our futures.

Transcript

0:06

Hello, welcome to Falling for Learning podcast. This is TD Flenaugh I am here for a special episode of the Falling for Learning podcast. It is about teacher appreciation. Now, what had happened was no. So obviously I posted a podcast episode that had multiple issues and I didn't realize it until after it was done. But right now we are in a phase of the month of the school year of all the things that makes it so that these things can not be corrected until now. So Saturdays at 5pm is when I put out my podcast. Sometimes I put out a little earlier, whatever, but, um, and obviously I put this podcast out last year and actually I have not had time to check. So if you don't know, and maybe everyone knows, I am a solo podcaster. So I'm doing this thing myself because I am on a mission to make sure that I find people and support people who need to be empowered to help that next generation as far as education goes, helping them to navigate the ups and downs of parenthood and teenage and all the things. because we know that parents often have the best intentions, but that does not stop life from happening and our kids from getting into challenges and situations that are very hard to get them back on track. So the Falling for Learning podcast is about getting kids on track for learning and to stay on track for success. I do that with a podcast. I have my books, the Rewrite Method, the Rewrite Method Workbook. I now have my novel, which is called Little Mobile Home on the Tundra. And it is to spark a conversation about how to make sure the next generation is interrupting generational dysfunction. So usually on Wednesdays, I have been doing my reading and healing series that's based on the conversation sparked by the book, Little Mobile Home on the Tundra. So I'm gonna put it up so you know. But today is going to do double duty because we're also going to do a falling for learning podcast episode to replace the hot mess that is up right now for the teacher appreciation. So it is what it is. um I am going to be going into my fourth season and uh the podcast and definitely I need to make some changes because solo podcasting is not the way. and just even seeing more challenges than I thought I had before, whatever, it's fine. But I didn't want this time to pass, and it does kind of pass, but just like Black History Month, uh appreciating teachers should be an all year round, everyday thing. And I know that the tide has changed a lot about how people feel about teachers, and it just goes back and forth. uh But... I want to honor some of the teachers in my life that were just amazing and really affected change in my life. Not just a long time ago, but even today. And I'm reaping the benefit of having access to those teachers and the support of those teachers. um So I am going to talk about some of those teachers. um And so it'll hopefully have the smooth. you know, uh broadcast elements and sound and everything that the other one that is posted does not have. um So I want to give uh really honor and respect to my 12th grade English teacher. Her name was Natalie Byler. um She really, as far as when it came to me going to college, so by that time, I was out of my home and living on my own in a way with my brother. And, um, I still needed to pay for college and I applied to scholarships. I still remained an honor student. And this is what we're talking about. Again, I was an honor student. had a lot of great things going for me, but I had separated from my parents and even moved out of state. Right? um So again, this is something that could happen to people when we are not as parents really being intentional about helping to stay connected to our children. When we forget to make the changes between the transition between childhood and teenage hood, like how does that relationship look different? And how do we honor some of their independence while also maintaining that parent-child relationship in a healthy way, in a productive way, in a way that keeps the lines of communication open. So all that had shut down basically in many ways. But so I had to rely on some teachers to help me navigate uh college entrance examinations as well as uh sending off scholarship packages. I know a lot of stuff is done online now. Uh, but that doesn't mean that kids don't need support and help, whatever. So Natalie Byler, my 12th grade English teacher, you know, easily read 50 drafts and iterations of my scholarship and college essays easily. English teachers are already inundated, but she took the time and made sure she read it, marked it up, gave me feedback. gave me another one and I had many iterations. I applied to over 48 scholarships just to let you know how much work she was doing. So that was a labor of love, right? She didn't get paid extra for that. I wasn't in a tutoring program where they were paying teachers extra. I just came and got help and asked for help and she gave it to me. So, I just have to say how much I appreciate her. I won. thousands and thousands of dollars of scholarships and she was partially, you know, a very big part of that. So shout out to her wherever she is in the world. ah So that takes me to my other teacher that really put me on this path to college and scholarships and all of that. My fourth grade teacher, Ruth Nelson, put me on the path to applying for scholarships in the fourth grade. Yes, I'm going to say that one more time, the fourth grade. In the fourth grade, she told me about academic scholarships. I did not know anything about academic scholarships. I had heard of athletic scholarships for basketball players and football players and all of those things. I did not know that you could get paid to get good grades. Did not know that. And so I had a path to college set in fourth grade because my teacher told me about it. She also told me the type of classes to take in high school and the activities to get involved in. And she even followed up when I was in eighth grade and my sister had her as a teacher as well, right? Four years later. But she also, at the time my mother was getting her cosmetology license and uh Ms. Nelson went to the beauty college and did not get her hair done by my mom. But when she got her hair done, swooped over to squeeze in, talked to my mom for a couple minutes about the high school classes that I needed to be taking, I was in eighth grade at the time. And she said, this is what the district people are going to say when you tell them that she needs to be in algebra 2 in ninth grade. And my mom said, and actually my mom didn't even reveal this to me until I was like 40 years old or something. I don't know. was probably past 40. So. Like I didn't know, but my mom was like, yeah, Ms. Corr. Nelson told me exactly what classes she should be taking. She told me exactly what the district people would say when they tried to push back and say, maybe she's not ready. And they're like, she is ready. Because Ms. Ms. was telling her that she needs to be ready to take hard classes so she could achieve in college, right? If we're waiting for the hard classes to come in college, then she may not make it through college. But if she has the hard classes in ninth grade and 10th grade, she could adjust and she can get used to it and she could be prepared to excel in college, right? So, you know, and my mom knew what to say. She pushed back and I was in algebra two as a ninth grader because as an eighth grader, I was in algebra one. And you know, that it was just amazing for me to know that she was still like hat my back. And I don't know how intentional she was about not going to my mom for her hair, because as we know, that could have messed up the relationship. Maybe Ms. Corr. Nelson didn't like the way my mom did her hair or something. She was in beauty college. She did not get her hair done by her. She got her hair done by someone else. I just feel like she had so many layers of wisdom. It's just amazing. um Ms. Nelson also was a person who really taught us about the writing process, about how the writing process does not look like, does not look the same for everyone. She talked to us about how she started writing on little napkins and paper towels, and she would dream about something she was gonna write. She would write it. So she just talked about like the organic process for her as a writer, and then how... we had our own organic process and how it might happen to you like this, it might happen to you another way, but you are writers, you can be writers, this is how you develop your writing skills. telling us about showing and not telling and how writing is rewriting all of those things. And she just really ignited me, further ignited me, because I already was like an eager learner to continue learning and to be a scholar. uh She also followed up with me later on and some of my students don't have these skills. Now, when you're asking for these recommendations, you should be uh writing thank you notes to people, giving them at least two weeks, not telling people your deadline because they may let you down. So if you tell people, like let's say you have something due on May 15th, give them... Give them three weeks time and tell them it's due on May 11th. Tell them that it's due May 8th, a week ahead of time. So that you, if they got behind, if they weren't able to meet the deadline, they are actually not setting you back. And ask multiple people. You're not just relying on one person to give you that recommendation letter on the actual 15th of the month. And then being upset that you weren't able to get that done. So she gave me all of this insight that I would not have had about writing recommendation letters, all that cultivating relationships with the teachers. um And just by the way, I cultivated this relationship with my teacher basically because I'm what you call cold phobic. I grew up in Alaska, hated the cold, never adjusted to it. And as a result, I... I helped the teachers as much as possible. How much of that contributed to me becoming a teacher, I don't know. um Ms. Corr. Nelson was the teacher I think that I helped the most in her classroom, from what I remember. But so before I even got into fourth grade, I had already taught my sister how to read. And so I already had a natural inclination to teach already. um That's just part of my story. Now, if you read the little mobile home on the Tundra, a little sister character is not in that book. And uh that is again, part of my healing process and all the things. And that's just how it came out for now. And of course there's more books to come. On to the next. So Ms. Corr. was amazing, stayed in contact with me. into adulthood was, you know, just propelled me into success with all the extra insight and details that I wouldn't have gotten from anybody else. Because some of these things, I think that teachers think, you should know to give people extra time. You should know to cultivate relationships with teachers. You should know to write a thank you note. And a lot of people don't. It's not a habit in my family. It's not something that's going down in my family. So I wouldn't know about it. I'm just going to let you know. Wouldn't know. So I needed that and she was there. So before Ms. Nelson was one of my great teachers uh who also introduced writing to me. Her name is Ms. Corr. introduced writing to me as a confidant, right? Back during that time, you may read books or you hear about people writing to their diary and stuff like that. She gave us some writing time in class. My third grade teacher, Ms. Corr. So she was amazing and she gave us that information about how to, to, you know, really write out your thoughts and think about some things that you were going through that may be a hard. She read it if we wanted her to read it. And if she, didn't want her to read it, um she didn't. But she made sure that we were introduced to writing as a confidant. And that is something that has sustained me for so many years. And of course, part of that practice grew out of that. is me writing the little mobile home on the tundra and healing from a lot of family uh dysfunction or trauma or whatever you want to call it, I was able to process and move ahead. A lot of us are out there stuck in some trauma and family dysfunction because we're not able to articulate it, we're not able to write about it, we're not able to anything. So we're just stuck. It is a big ball of confusion and emotion and everything. because we have not processed it. And writing is one of the best ways to process um our pain and our thoughts and our emotions. So thank you so much to Ms. Corr for being that voice um and presenting writing in that way for us as early as third grade and giving us that protected writing time, that sacred writing time. that a lot of people don't have time for or don't take the time for for now. But this is, if some of us are out there and I'm, you know, I have my book, The Rewrite Method, but some of us are out there thinking, kids hate to write, they don't want to write. uh Maybe it's not important to write now because of AI and all of the things, but thinking about writing beyond academics and thinking about social, emotional, thinking about healing, thinking about mental health, it is an essential tool. for helping kids to be able to get through their hard times, get through their teenagehood and get through those horror motions, which I have uh deemed the mix of hormones and emotions that teenagers go through. And they're not always able to articulate what the heck it is that they're crying about, what they're upset about, why they feel the way they feel. And some of it doesn't have an answer, right? Because of horror motions. um Yeah. So my final teacher that I want to talk about is George Beu My wonderful George Beu, my second grade teacher, he was a teacher that I had, second grade, first male teacher that I had. He also was a teacher, um the first teacher of a classroom. that I was in where I was the only black student. um being who I was, a future educator, I found a book. had my mom uh purchase this book for me and I gave it to my teacher and it's called, Why Are People Different? And just in case he wouldn't understand like what it was to be black by yourself and all the things. And he said that he, He did read it to my class. I thought he was just going to read it to himself. He read it to my class. then every year after me, he read that book to my class, my class, his class. em And he did give it to me after he retired and I became a teacher or maybe when he was not retired yet and he was a teacher, I'm not sure, but he did send the book to me. And I actually had no memory of it until he sent me the book when I saw this book. Then the memory came back, but before that I didn't have any memory of me giving a book to him. But one of the things about this podcast, okay, what does all of this have to do with me as a parent today? um Obviously we talked about how teachers can give insight that we don't know, like maybe we don't know as parents to provide for the kids or help them navigate things. But also it's important to know that he's a teacher who's open to integrating some information from one of his students into his curriculum, into his classroom, into the conversations. He could have put that book down and not thought about it again. So when we're thinking about good teachers and marks of good teachers, are they open for suggestions and ideas? Are they able to collaborate with you? And as a parent, as a student, that's very important. And that takes some humility because maybe if he's like an experienced teacher, maybe he has enough on his plate about what he's already gonna do, what he thinks is important. And me bringing a book, which again, I didn't expect him to maybe read in the class. I believe I wrote oh my memory from it is that I wrote it. I bought the book for him to read and kind of understand some of the things that maybe I would be feeling as an only black kid in my class. Um. The other thing about Mr. Beu was so many things about him. um he, uh every day on the board, put potential, potential, I'm saying potential, potential, P-O-T-E-N-T-I-A-L. And he told us every day that we had the ingredients, and I'm not quoting, but inside of us to do whatever we wanted to do with our lives, right? to be whatever we want it to be. And so we need to put the work in, but we had it in us. And so that was so important to hear and to hear that every day. I thought was a very special, it stayed with me. And I think toward the end of that year, he started also adding unique, that we are special, that we have that special thing, each one of us inside of us, that we could bring something different to the world that anyone else can offer. And so again, just... a beautiful message and for us to hear it, you know, let's say half of the year or so he was bringing that in as well as something every day he would let us know. And em I'm just thinking like, oh, I haven't incorporated anything like that into my classroom. And I don't know why. And I feel like I could start incorporating that to really tell the kids that. And yeah, I'll let you guys know how that goes. And I have talked about this before, but just saying, OK, am I going to incorporate? I can incorporate this into my class. em Mr. Beu. Okay, so basically when I turned 40 around that time, it wasn't exact, but Mr. Beu came and took our family to dinner, my husband, my daughter. And so like, he's kind of still stays around. He's one of the first person to pre-order my book, Little Mobile Home and the Tundra. He is featured in the book and it's... It's just amazing to have support on the reading and healing series. He has logged in and weighed in and talked about, you know, uh me as a little girl, what he remembers and all the things. Um, as some of you know, I am a recovering perfectionist, uh perfectionist and, uh, Mr. Beu my mom and I, we still laugh about our, my second grade, uh, report card comment. in which he said, you know, Taiesha is still learning that she's a human that makes mistakes. Because I would get very upset if I missed one two answer, one answer or anything. Like I always wanted everything to be perfect. And you know, he was telling me about how he had to deliver that news to me that they haven't made any perfect humans yet and I'm not gonna be the first. So. It is a lifelong struggle trying not to take on too much and think about yourself as someone who could just handle anything and do anything I mean you can do anything but it's about you know You've still got to be sustained in your in your rest in your health and self-care uh And then you know the pressure that you put on yourself So that is part of why I'm doing this podcast today because It is past teachers appreciation week, but I also wanted to just really still honor the teachers and take down that, the, the one that has all the mistakes and I'm not sure who was able to get through that because, uh, the listening experience was less than optimal. Um, and, uh, but I also just want to honor those teachers who helped me become the person that I am today. Some of the teachers were around when, um, I had both parents, some of them were around when I just had one parent and even some of them like Miss Byler was around when there were no parents around. And I was pursuing my goals and trying to live my dreams and fulfill my potential. And those teachers were there to really support me and give me the love uh and care that I needed. So again, a big shout out to Natalie Byler, um Miss Corr Miss Nelson, um Mr. Beu So those were amazing teachers. And one thing I do wanna say about the current climate and how it is with teachers, there are a lot of... situations where teachers now are ridiculed or even disrespected because they are trying to uphold certain standards for kids. They have a certain viewpoint and a certain role that a lot of people don't understand. And so... there's a lot against teachers because they're just trying to just hold a certain standard. They're just trying to make sure that students learn lessons, both academically and otherwise. And there are lots of parents out there now and lots of people out there who don't believe their kids should have consequences. And we're not talking about consequences like going to jail or em even being suspended or or anything like that, but just regular consequences. You did not do your assignment. You have an F, right? You don't have a real reason that your assignment wasn't turned in. I'm not talking about people who have all kinds of responsibilities and some things that held them up from being able to get assignments, but some students are just feeling lazy. And of course they're gonna continue to feel lazy, especially when there's not consequences. um And so they'll, you know, or, you know, calling parents and parents are trying to curse out a teacher or cut off a teacher instead of just listening to what is happening, standing up for their kids when they know very well that their kids cause problems at home and do these same things. You are not helping your child when you are being combative with the teacher. If a teacher is not doing what they're supposed to do is in fact, you know, abusing power, whatever, of course report them. But you being in a battle with the teacher, arguing with the teacher, fighting with the teacher, calling teacher names, not listening to them, I don't know how you feel like that's gonna be helpful. I understand there are tensions, tensions get high, wait to respond and then respond, work with the teachers, right? um Some of us also have been blindsided. um as parents or even as teachers because some people don't care about our kids, but they act like they do. We know that there are predators out there and there are predators that really make your kid feel fun and have fun and whatever. And actually they don't have the right intentions. That's an extreme, right? It happens, but it's an extreme. It's a truth. But we also have teachers who don't care about your kids because they care about their social life. They uh prioritize themselves over your kids, right? I'm talking about teachers who uh instead of having your kid go to their class, they're able to hang out with the teacher instead of going to class. They're letting the kid curse and make out with their boyfriend in the class instead of actually holding the classroom as a place and a space for learning. These teachers are like, even though they're fun and they're cool teachers, they're the favorite of the teens for some of us, some of them, they actually aren't good for your kid. And so when it comes to a teacher that says, where's your assignment? You're going to get a low grade because you didn't turn in your assignment. I'm here to teach you how to read. I'm not going to let you use your phone all through class or whatever. Then those teachers are trying to hold a standard up that is about care and about helping your child be successful. And so I just want to caution people out there to be careful and be really, have some discernment about who you are deeming to be a good teacher and who you're not, because just being cool or being liked is not always right. um So just really, you know, be discerning. Right? There are for sure some things that may have gone down back in the day that as a parent, you're like, I'm not going to let that happen to my kid. I get it. But if that is not everybody and that's not every situation. So you have to go case by case and listen and, and, and ask questions and observe and all those things. So that, and for you to, some of us automatically have an attitude because we don't understand like how things go or how things must go when you're dealing with multiple kids. Not your child, but multiple kids. There needs to be systems in place. Um, so that's all. So really, um, hopefully you are thinking about the teachers that are in your lives and their relationship to your kids, the things that. You know, that they're doing to help your child succeed, the things that you could do to support them, the things that you could help your child do, or even, you know, um, help your child support their teacher or help. you know, work together, right? Really, ultimately, this podcast is really supporting and empowering parents to have the skills, tools, resources, strategies needed to make sure our children are on track for learning and to stay on track for success. And please do something today that gives your child a competitive advantage. Thank you so much, and I'll see you next week.