- April 24, 2024
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As an introvert and the daughter of a teacher, Khady Harmon decided from her youth that she would never be a teacher herself. But as she immigrated to the United States from Senegal to become a doctor, she changed her mind, and the students of Matanzas High School are reaping the rewards. Harmon, the current Flagler Schools Teacher of the Year until another is chosen in two months, spoke with the Palm Coast Observer recently about the power and responsibility of being a teacher.
I love working with teenagers. It’s a fun part of life, that journey from puberty to being responsible. They have great conversations.
I think sarcasm makes things a little bit easier for me. You can say serious things, but you can play it off and still enjoy them as children.
My dad is 78 years old now, and he still has students that he had a long time ago still getting in touch with him, so I think he did a great job.
A great teacher, first of all, is one who knows the content and relates it very well. Just being smart it is one thing, but being able to relate to an audience of so many different personalities, so many different backgrounds, and also being able to pull gifts out of people, is the mark of a great teacher. I know it’s very cliche that teachers do that, but it’s reality, especially now, with this generation that’s been in front of a computer for so long.
A lot of kids don’t know what they can do. For example, you’ll have a child who’s been told all their life they can’t do math, and then you’ll say, “You’re very good at math,” and all of a sudden, they start believing that. And once they do, it just takes off. It takes that one person to believe that you can.
Build relationships first. That is the No. 1 thing that gets me to school every day. In the parking lot, you’ll have kids start talking to you before you even put your books down. Teaching like a champion means that when you’re coming in, you’re meeting a human before you’re meeting students. Having a relationship with kids means you are going to change the way they think, the way they look at themselves, the way they look at the future.
"Having a relationship with kids means you are going to change the way they think, the way they look at themselves, the way they look at the future."
— KHADY HARMON
It is. It isn’t something we should take for granted. Respecting the individual that’s in front of you is that power. You have that power to hear them and to make them feel like they matter.
As teachers, we are told that we are game-changers, but to have a child every day, and to see that child from freshman year to senior year, to see that growth, is amazing.
As a teacher, this is where you draw a boundary. I am their teacher; I am not their parent.
These people are human. They’re precious to me, so I can’t even imagine how precious they are to their own parents. But it doesn’t matter how much they look like you; they are different people, and they are experiencing a pandemic right now. I didn’t experience a pandemic as a teenager; I don’t know how that feels. So just remember that human side and support them.
It gets better. Focus on the four walls of your room right now, and just remember that you’re there for your students, and every day will be different. There’s no such thing as embarrassment when you’re a new teacher because you’re still learning. It will get better.
My job is to make sure these children are learning. They have to feel safe, they have to feel loved. They have to trust that the adult in the room is not chaotic.
I have seen poverty, I have seen tragedies, and I have to remember: What is it that I can do?
If I’m wearing a mask, it doesn’t prevent me from learning. Do what you can; don’t just let other people take the responsibility as a community. We’re all fighting this right now.
I don’t think there’s one. You can be an individual.
You can work hard, you can succeed — maybe not at what you thought. I came here to be a doctor, and I’m a teacher now. But I’ve succeeded in my own goals of becoming an adult of values, an adult that’s independent.
Look around: There’s all kinds of success.
What makes the United States what it is, are the immigrants. The ones that are still coming today, the one that cam before. Be able to welcome differences and embrace them.
When I was a first-year teacher, I was focused on academics. I wanted kids to learn chemistry. And then I realized, “Oh, these kids may not want to be in school.” I became a mom, and I realized, “These kids are not like you. They may not like what you do.” From the time I became a teacher to now, I became a mom, and I became a foster mom, from 8 to 2:15. So I am a better teacher because I understood that learning is not academics. Learning is a journey of humans.
