pate in class discussions, but I refuse to intervene to settle disagreements or lecture to
them. They have to figure things out for themselves. I will not be in their secondary school
classrooms with them to give them answers.
My communication background was a definite advantage as I learned to define my peda-
gogy as a teacher. Creating videos, television programs, and promotional campaigns requires
putting things together into an integrated package that makes sense. My approach to teaching
means helping students draw connections and put together their own intellectual packages.
Growing up, I loved to hear stories. History is my hobby. I love the story part. But I con-
sider myself a teacher, rather than an historian or a history teacher. For me, teaching is
teaching. Give me a package to present and I will find a way to teach it. I taught math, Eng-
lish, and science in evening high school equivalency programs. I know many educators ar-
gue that content knowledge is fundamental to effective teaching. But I consider it more im-
portant to focus on the process of learning. When I prepare lessons, I spend more time
developing exciting ways to present material in class, ways that will make it more likely for
students to remember the content information. I also focus on designing activities that will
help students develop their thinking skills and literacy within the academic discipline. For
me, the activities and skills, the package, are more important than the content. Without the
package, students will never remember the content.
When I start planning new lessons or a new unit in any subject area, I pick out books and
articles on the topic and try to figure out the key narrative to present in class. Once I figure
out the story, I look for documents, maps, cartoons, pictures, and other materials that com-
plete the “package.” My goal is to organize the material in such a way that the students,
working in groups, individually, or as a full class, can analyze the material and discover the
story for themselves. I organize each lesson around four or five documents that illustrate
main ideas. The kids have to find the components of the story in the material. I continually
ask them, “What is the story here?”
Another aspect of successful teaching is connecting with students. I have had a lot of suc-
cess with immigrant students from different parts of the world—Russia, the Caribbean, China,
and Central America—because they realize that I experienced many of the same things they
are going through. At Murrow High School we had a number of Russian students and I learned
to say simple things like “hello” in Russian. They saw this as a sign of interest in their lives.
Eventually, I learned a little of their language and this helped us get along. Sometimes, I
shocked new Russian kids. They wondered, “How does this Black guy know Russian?” Clearly,
you do not have to be an immigrant yourself to make these kinds of connections.
As an assistant principal, I see a lot of students when they are in trouble. One of the first
things I ask a student is where they are from. If they say “Grenada,” I talk to them about Gre-
nada. Some of the teachers get upset because this kid just cursed out a teacher and now I am
talking with him about his home country. What I am doing is building a connection between
us. Later in the discussion, I might ask him, “Would you say the same things to teachers back
home?”
I think it is important that I learned to connect with students from a wide variety of cul-
tures. Some people say that I do well with students because I am Black or Caribbean, or be-
cause I am an immigrant. But some of the most devoted teachers I have worked with were
White and I have worked with Black teachers who grew up in British school systems who
never learn to work with kids. Being from Barbados is not the same as growing up Black in
an inner-city community in the United States. In the Caribbean, you know you can be a doc-
tor, lawyer, or accountant, or open a business if you choose, because in our society, 95% of
the people are Black. Since the abolition of slavery in the 19th century, people have had the
opportunity to go to school or learn a trade. Although most Whites in Barbados are well off,
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