Welcome back to the POP QUIZ! This is a regular, yet totally unexpected, feature where we ask students, parents, staff, our friends, and partners to answer a few questions about what they are learning, reading, and thinking about. Today we feature KPS teacher Andrea Walker, known as Miss Walker by her fifth grade students at Woodward School for Science and Technology.
As a single parent, Miss Walker worked hard and raised her two children. Both are graduates of Kalamazoo Public Schools, having attended the very school their mother has been teaching at for the past 12 years. Now grown and in college, one attends Kalamazoo Valley Community College and the other, Western Michigan University.
When you walk into Miss Walker’s homey and welcoming classroom, you can’t help but notice how she decorates her room with Nemo. She knows that the kids who swim through her class each year aren’t that different from Nemo, the adorable clownfish, and his friends who have challenges to navigate in life. As one of the many fantastic teachers at Woodward and throughout the Kalamazoo Public Schools, Miss Walker is showing up each day for kids and helping them learn and grow.
She compares herself to an open book. Her life, as you will soon learn, is filled with interesting chapters, with pages yet to be written.
Alright, Miss Walker: pencil out, eyes on your own paper. Good luck.
Pop Quiz
What is a question you’ve been asked recently?
[Laughing.] You don’t want to know that answer, especially the day after a full moon. [Note: We interviewed Miss Walker during her lunch break, the day after a full moon.]
Tell us, then, a question you recently asked.
Just yesterday, I asked my students, Where’s the empathy?
I want them to understand feelings and when someone is being mean to someone else, what is the appropriate response? It’s not to laugh, as that can hurt feelings. I want them to connect to each other and express understanding and empathy for what someone else may be going through.
What are you currently reading?
I just finished the book, Mermaid. I didn’t really like it and was surprised because I love Jodi Picoults’ other works. This just wasn’t an amazing read like her other ones.
What is your favorite word right now?
Seriously.
Seriously what?
That’s my word. Seriously. That’s what I often say to the kids, Seriously?
What are you curious about?
The overall depression and anxiety in our kids these days. It worries me.
Have you seen an increase in this over your 12 years as a teacher?
Yes, it’s been growing. There’s a lot of trauma kids are dealing with, as well as a lot of anxiety these days.
Does having CIS in your school help you as a teacher?
Oh, God, yes! CIS helps me tons as a teacher. And not only with the basics [school supplies but CIS provides that emotional and social backing that our kids need. During the day, CIS helps with such a range of things, from personal hygiene issues we might have with a student to tutoring support, and whatever else they may need. Oh, they just do so much. And having CIS after school as well extends the learning day and keeps students safe. I have a hard time remembering what it was like before, when we didn’t have CIS.
You’re also the leader teacher in CIS after school. What does that entail?
Yes, I’m the core teacher for the third, fourth, and fifth graders during CIS after school. That means I meet with the students for one hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I’ll reiterate the facts in math or ELA [English Language Arts] that they have been learning during the school day. We’ll go over strategies and skills and do pre-test preparation. We’ll also do some book studying. I also like to have them play learning games; they don’t realize they’re learning because it’s in the form of fun games.
When you were a kid, where did you grow up?
In Indiana, Portage. I’m originally from Hobart, Indiana and went to Hobart High School and then we moved to Portage, Indiana.
What brought you to Michigan?
I got a job working at Spencer’s Gifts. This was the one in St. Joseph, Michigan. And it was around that time I then started back to school. I was working nights at Lakeland Medical Center in the OB unit as a clerk.
Is that what brought you to Kalamazoo?
The Promise brought me to Kalamazoo. As a single mom, I knew it would be hard, if not impossible to pay for my children’s college education. So when I graduated with my associate degree from Lake Michigan College, my kids saw me walk across the stage. And then I packed them up, and we moved to Kalamazoo so they could get the Promise. I started working at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum as an interpretation specialist, assisting with tours and such. And then I started back to school to get my teaching certification at Western. I interned at Washington Writers’ Academy.
Poetry isn’t part of the American childhood education that it once was. Yet, poetry is important to you. You make a concerted effort to incorporate it into your classroom each year. Why?
I’ve always liked poetry. And you’re right, curriculums touches on it very little.
I love the awakening that occurs in my students when we do poetry. I love seeing the lights go on for them when, in doing and seeing things differently, pieces fall in place and start fitting together for them. I like bringing the work of Dr. Seuss into the classroom. I’ll tell them the story of his whole life and how things progressed for him. It’s an exciting way to engage them in learning. They’re interested in that and take it all in.
I really do love that awakening in the kids…the joy that goes with listening to and creating their own works of poetry, that this is something they can create for themselves…you see it on their faces as they light up.
What is something interesting you’ve recently learned?
Math! I’ve only taught ELA for the past ten years. Because we don’t have our students switching classes this year, I teach it all to them. So I’ve been relearning math with the new curriculum.
Behind every successful person is a caring adult. Who has been your caring adult?
I’m the only one in my immediate family who has gone to college. The person who pushed me to go to college was a nurse, Barbara Davis. She’s still a nurse and a friend of mine to this day. You’d be better as a teacher than a nurse, she told me. I’m a late bloomer.
At the hospital, we had this chalkboard up at work for noting announcements. I drew all the Sesame Street characters on it. Barbara said to me, I think your calling is to be a teacher.
Huh, I thought. I had never even considered that possibility until she mentioned it.
She was right! From just the little I’ve been able to see you in action with your students, you are clearly born to teach. Yet, you didn’t see that in yourself until someone else pointed that out. Thank goodness she did!
You know, until talking about all this now, I didn’t realize how many different types of jobs I’ve held along the way to get there!
In the CIS Annual Report [recently out and can be accessed here] you are one of the people who shared what you are made of. You said you’re a book.
That’s right. Don’t judge a book by its cover.
What books have helped shaped who you are?
Are you ready?
Uh, hope so.
All the Nancy Drew books, The Box Car Children, Are You There God? It’s me Margaret by Judy Bloom. Oh, I could go on.
The books I enjoy now with my students, oh, there are so many of them. But one of my favorites is Flush by Carl Hiaasen. It’s one of my favorites for school here because it is relatable and teaches about bullying. I also read aloud to them Wonder by R.J. Palacio. We had a “Wonder party” for our fifth graders. We closed down the hall, had a party, and cake. The kids loved it.
Thank you, Miss Walker, for hanging out with us at Ask Me About My 12,000 Kids.
Tags: Andrea Walker, Barbara Davis, CIS, Communities In School of Kalamazoo, Hobart High School, Kalamazoo Promise, Kalamazoo Public Schools, Lake Michigan College, Lakeland Medical Center, teachers making a difference, Washington Writers' Academy, Woodward School for Technnology and Research
