Guest post: “Why I teach…” by Santina Cambor

For the past several years, we’ve taken time at our gatherings of our full K-8 faculty and staff to hear from a few teachers and staff members about why they teach and choose to work at ANCS.  It’s a tradition borrowed from some other schools, one that serves to remind us of the passion we all hold for our students and the work of teaching and learning.

A few of our teachers and staff who’ve given such a talk have generously agreed to let me share their words to a wider audience, and so, every so often, in place of a blog post by me, I’ll post instead one of their speeches.  Earlier this year I shared a “Why I teach” speech given by middle campus Math/Science/Technology teacher Jennifer Dickie.  Today I’m happy to share a speech given this past summer by our middle campus office manager Santina Cambor.  

“Why I teach and work at ANCS” by Santina Cambor

I came to know ANCS before my start in July 2010. I can remember attending informational/planning meetings at Georgia Hill Library with former parents such as Paula Jessup and Sally Raddell and other Grant Park baseball parents. Although at the meetings I realize I might not be in 1^st zone, I was intrigued with the idea of parents being involved in their child’s education like me.

My second time around was coming over to the elementary campus during a charter school arts night with my daughter and the school she attended at the time, KIPP WAYS. I was in awe of the school.  At the time, I’d just had a new son, Braylon and I said to myself, wow it would be a long shot for Braylon to attend this school. Little did I know he would be here serving lunch to his fellow friends, taking cooking enrichment classes three times with Ms. Randall all in one year, falling in love with reading, enjoying intervention pull out with Ms. McGee and loving all of his teachers -sometimes a little too much with the “my teacher said” phases.

Although I am not a “teacher” on payroll, I have had several teaching moments for both myself and the students here at ANCS. My first experience was when my mom passed away. I came to work that morning not with a heavy heart, but with an outrage of emotions. See my mom has always been a split decision minded person who came and went as she pleased. We never knew her thoughts. So I walked into the school thinking once again this lady does things on her own without telling anyone. The whole day I went to work as usual with only a couple of people knowing as I had asked Cathey to wait until the end of the day to announce it. During after school it hit me, that wow my mom just passed.   I was having one of my “coming to the minds” meeting as the kids would say in after school, as I often did when the kids needed a little refresher on what behavior looks like. At the close of our conversation my heart grew real heavy and at that moment I felt like I needed to air out. I asked the kids to be patient with me because last night my mom passed away and I had not decided how I wanted to handle it. At that moment in Mr. Aaron’s room literally all of the students ran over to me with hugs and comforts and well wishes. They even gave me ideas on how to handle my mom’s passing. I realized that one of the reasons I love ANCS is because of my relationship with students and how they see me. A teaching moment for me.

This past year I had an incident with students that really pushed my button of me showing strong emotions. Some students decided to make jokes about people with disabilities. I was heated.   I asked everyone to stop what they were doing and have a seat in my not so nice and smiling voice. For some reason I wanted everyone to know how his or her behavior and laughter offended me. So I shared my story.

I have a younger brother who is ten years younger me that was born with cerebral palsy. It was something my mom could not handle so he went to live with my grandmother, I followed because he became my first child, and he was my special baby doll. When dementia took over my grandmother, I took my brother in and raised him. My brother was never treated any different. We argue, we fuss and we fight. He caught attitudes like everyone else. I told the kids in tears that their word broke my heart. I explained to them that at that very moment when they were making fun, I for the first time put myself in my brother’s shoes. By me never treating him different, I never stopped to think about what he went through growing up. Here he was wheelchair bound and would never have some of the opportunities that we take for granted. Then Some “What Would You DO” and “How would you feel” followed our conversations. I then talked about a speech impairment that I have and sometimes it makes it hard for me to talk in front of people. Which is why a lot of times they will see me stop talking so my thoughts can catch up to what I wanted to say. At the end of our little talk, there were very few dry eyes. They decided on their own that they would stand up and apologize indivually to me and to the group and express their feelings about the process we just went through.   I realized that not only did I teach the kids a lesson about disabilities and how to respond to bias behavior, but I also taught myself a lesson about its ok to be different.

So why do I love working at ANCS?

I love working at ANCS because when I ask my middle son, who has had some tough times to name his best year of school, he quickly replies my time at ANCS, because my teachers cared.

I love working at ANCS, because when I was face with making a tough decision about retaining my son in Kindergarten, I had tons of support. Not only was I offered words of wisdom, I had many check ins to make sure that I clearly understood what was happening and given contact information for parents that faced the same dilemma and was given the same support. There was never a day I felt unsupported.

I love working at ANCS because, I am allowed to work outside of the front office walls. From being a co-advisor, helping out with the talent show and the 8^th grade celebration and more. I have been afforded many opportunities throughout my work here at ANCS. From working and attending critical friends groups, serving as a parent liaison and being asked “what do you want to do” or if you have any thing you would like to do or learn about please let me know.

I love working at ANCS because of the awesome group of people I work with each and everyday. It’s a joy knowing that you matter in the work place and I am not just seen as the office lady that answers the phone and opens the door.

In closing I would like to share a Thank You Note that was given to me last year by a student that caught me by surprise and truly explains my reason for being here.

Dear Ms. Santina,

Thank you for all that you do! Thank you for taking care of me when I’m sick. Thank you for comforting me. Thank you for FIT WIT. You inspire me on all levels. Thank you for being dedicated to us even when your little girl is at home. I was having a bad day, you smiled at me and said good morning. It changed my whole day. You are a rock, a person, a teacher, a role model.