What's the biggest lesson your students have taught you?

The biggest lesson that my students have taught me is to be flexible, and always plan for my students’ needs and make sure that I'm meeting them.  Regardless of what my curriculum says, and regardless of what a particular person may say, I need to make sure that what I'm doing is going to be best for my students and further their education.

What’s been your proudest moment in the classroom?

Last year and hopefully this year, I ended up having a Black Lives Matter discussion with my kids and it was so great to see their dialogue with each other and how passionate some of them are about social justice and activism, even at a very young age, because I teach 6th grade. Just to see how they were able to have that educational discourse and that collaborative conversation even if they didn't agree. They barely needed me, they were polite, they kept in our guidelines, they let each other speak. There was so much dialogue, and a lot of students who were not black were able to see and understand that perspective and what that movement is about. And seeing kids do that is transformative, especially because I'm passionate about that in my personal life. Social justice and social activism can happen at any age if you give the tools and the knowledge to navigate it.

What’s one of the funniest moments from the classroom?

I was playing music with my students in their free study time. I was playing New Edition, and one of my kids asked if it was Michael Jackson, and I said no it's New Edition, like THE New Edition, like the greatest R&B group of all time, and he said, "Okay, the new edition of what?" and I burst out laughing, because he genuinely thought it was a new version of someone else.

What do you like to do in your downtime?

In my downtime, I love to binge watch Netflix. I binge watch The Office – I've literally re-watched the entire series like 30 times. I love to read, like African American fiction, and I love to go to church. I'm very spiritual.

What’s your favorite school supply?

My favorite school supply is sharpie pens, the colorful pens, because they don't bleed through the paper and then I can grade in color!