This Trainer’s Yearbook Picture Is Profitable Hearts On-line

When one instructor posted an absurd yearbook picture on her Instagram, it stopped my scroll—and clearly, I wasn’t the one one. Her publish has acquired numerous consideration, hanging a chord with educators.

Right here’s what she wrote: “Annually, my aim is easy: educate the teachings, make them chortle, and take one utterly absurd yearbook picture that nobody will ever overlook, 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 picture. I would like my college students to know that faculty may be filled with laughter, recollections, and even a little bit of chaos.”

This message resonated deeply with me, and I wished to be taught extra concerning the instructor behind the picture. Meet Jere Chang, a gifted-education instructor whose Instagram and all of her social media is filled with the identical power and coronary heart that’s profitable over 1000’s. Right here’s my Q&A along with her.

The place do you educate and the way lengthy have you ever been a instructor?

I educate gifted training at Drew Constitution College in Atlanta, Georgia, and I’ve been within the classroom for over 20 years. I’ve taught all the pieces from kindergarten via school, together with ESOL, basic training, and at present gifted training in 1st via third grades.

When did you begin taking humorous yearbook images? What number of do you will have now?

I began about 10 years in the past once I realized lecturers might both dread image day or personal it. It started as a joke, however now it’s custom.

Do you will have a favourite picture that you just’ve taken?

My favourite one is my first one with my glasses, wild hair, massive smile, and pink plaid shirt. It’s the one that the majority former college students rave about.

Do you will have a particular reminiscence of a scholar who got here as much as you years later and shared how they remembered your picture?

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 picture 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 faculty, and I would like my college students to really feel the alternative. I would like them to chortle, 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 will have any phrases of knowledge or assist to supply different lecturers?

Keep in mind to deal with your self. You possibly can’t pour from an empty cup, however you possibly can refill it with laughter, group, and beauty for your self. We’re shaping lives, not simply knowledge targets.

What’s a tip it’s important to maintain the enjoyment in educating?

Construct pleasure into your routine. Play a fast sport, 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 lecturers make your new and contemporary concepts really feel invalid. Deliver all the brand new power as we move the torch to you. Youngsters as of late deserve one of the best of us, so don’t let others and/or knowledge design your journey.

What else ought to we learn about you?

Exterior of faculty, I’m a nationwide speaker and digital content material creator with over 4 million followers, sharing tales that commemorate lecturers and actual school rooms. I simply completed my first ebook, and it’s popping out Could 2026. It’s a two-part ebook that traces my journey from a struggling scholar to thriving educator, then provides sensible methods and heartfelt tales to assist lecturers rediscover pleasure and objective within the classroom. I dwell in Atlanta, Georgia, with my spouse and our two sons.

Yow will discover all of Ms. Cheng’s hyperlinks on her web site proper right here.

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