When one instructor posted an absurd yearbook photograph on her Instagram, it stopped my scroll—and clearly, I wasn’t the one one. Her post has received a lot of attention, hanging a chord with educators.
Right here’s what she wrote: “Every year, my objective is straightforward: educate the teachings, make them chuckle, and take one fully absurd yearbook photograph that nobody will ever neglect, as a result of pleasure issues. Years later, when my college students return as school youngsters, they don’t speak about grades or initiatives, they speak about my foolish yearbook photograph. I would like my college students to know that faculty could be stuffed with laughter, reminiscences, and even a little bit of chaos.”
This message resonated deeply with me, and I needed to be taught extra concerning the instructor behind the photograph. Meet Jere Chang, a gifted-education instructor whose Instagram and all of her social media is stuffed with the identical vitality and coronary heart that’s successful over hundreds. Right here’s my Q&A together with her.
The place do you educate and the way lengthy have you ever been a instructor?
I educate gifted schooling at Drew Constitution College in Atlanta, Georgia, and I’ve been within the classroom for over 20 years. I’ve taught every little thing from kindergarten by school, together with ESOL, common schooling, and at present gifted schooling in 1st by third grades.
When did you begin taking humorous yearbook pictures? What number of do you have got now?
I began about 10 years in the past after I realized academics might both dread image day or personal it. It started as a joke, however now it’s custom.
Do you have got a favourite photograph that you just’ve taken?
My favourite one is my first one with my glasses, wild hair, huge smile, and pink plaid shirt. It’s the one that the majority former college students rave about.
Do you have got a particular reminiscence of a scholar who got here as much as you years later and shared how they remembered your photograph?
Sure! I had a former scholar come again from school and say, “Ms. Chang, I nonetheless present individuals your yearbook footage once they ask who my favourite instructor was.” That meant the world to me. The photograph could have been humorous, however what they actually remembered was how our classroom felt.
What’s your “why” for educating?
I educate as a result of I do know what it’s prefer to hate college, and I would like my college students to really feel the other. I would like them to chuckle, really feel seen, and imagine they belong precisely as they’re.
How do you hope your college students will bear in mind you years from now?
I hope they bear in mind me because the instructor who made studying enjoyable, believed in them fiercely, and reminded them that pleasure and curiosity go hand in hand.
It’s a tricky time proper now to be a instructor. Do you have got any phrases of knowledge or help to supply different academics?
Keep in mind to deal with your self. You’ll be able to’t pour from an empty cup, however you may refill it with laughter, neighborhood, and charm for your self. We’re shaping lives, not simply knowledge targets.
What’s a tip it’s a must to hold the enjoyment in educating?
Construct pleasure into your routine. Play a fast recreation, have fun random holidays, or begin class with a foolish query. The extra pleasure you create deliberately, the extra it naturally grows. Don’t let veteran academics make your new and contemporary concepts really feel invalid. Deliver all the brand new vitality as we go the torch to you. Youngsters as of late deserve the most effective of us, so don’t let others and/or knowledge design your journey.
What else ought to we find out about you?
Exterior of college, I’m a nationwide speaker and digital content material creator with over 4 million followers, sharing tales that commemorate academics and actual school rooms. I simply completed my first e-book, and it’s popping out Could 2026. It’s a two-part e-book that traces my journey from a struggling scholar to thriving educator, then gives sensible methods and heartfelt tales to assist academics rediscover pleasure and function within the classroom. I dwell in Atlanta, Georgia, with my spouse and our two sons.
Yow will discover all of Ms. Chang’s hyperlinks on her website right here.
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