Sumaya Brown Interview

Les talks with his daughter Sumaya about being an educator and focusing on the needs of all of our children in school.

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Episode Transcript

(00:12):
You have something special, you havegreatness in you. Hello. I'm Les
Brown and I have a special guest. Her name is Sameya Brown. Hello,
Dolly Dad. It's been an oldbut this is great. One of
the things that I love very muchabout my children. They have their own

(00:35):
mind and they have their own position, and they think about things. And
some things we agree on, butmost things we disagree on. But here's
something that I really am very proudof. Sameya. She has been involved
in education for a very long time. And I remember when you were in

(00:55):
California and there were some students whowere immigrants who had been labeled, and
they told you that they could notlearn. The teachers were speaking about them
in a derogatory way, and youstepped up and you spoke up for them.
And I think about my being labeled. Am I always believing you labeled

(01:18):
jars? You don't label children?And you said these students can learn.
And you didn't just say that andgave it lift service. You stepped up
and you work with them. Tellme, what was it that you're willing
to do that the other teachers didnot do well. I guess it's not
so much that the other teachers didn'tdo because there were some teachers who were

(01:42):
also doing it. But I thinkwhen you run into larger school systems,
you have a combination of different typesof teachers. So you have the teacher
who definitely is a teacher that teachesnot because they need a paycheck or because
they want a paycheck, obviously theyneed one, but they're teaching because they
really have a per and they havea destiny, and that destiny is to
pour into their students, is toawaken learning for the students who don't know

(02:06):
how to learn, and it's toeven engage students that are gifted and talented
because sometimes they get left behind aswell, and to challenge them. So
I think you have those types ofteachers, then you have other types of
teachers that are a little bit laidback, a little bit comfortable, maybe
set in their ways, and maybehave some how can I say this,
They may have some prejudices that theyare not prepared to necessarily confront and that

(02:31):
can trickle down to students. Andso when I found myself in environments with
a mixture of both teachers that reallywant to be there for the students and
other teachers who may be challenged withdealing with students who are different than them.
I think the biggest thing is numberone, recognizing that we work as
a team. We're not against thestudents, we're not against each other,
but we're a cohesive unit working forone purpose, and that is that students

(02:53):
will learn. So the best thingto do is to make sure that students
know that you care first and foremostbefore you teach them a thing. Find
out what they're interested in, learnabout them, and then from their build
your curriculum upon their interest. Youmentioned something is key. Students knowing that

(03:14):
you care. It's Mae Angelo whosaid that people don't care how much you
know until they know how much youcare. Caring and providing information or stimulating
a thirst to want to learn.How important is caring play in that area
of education and impacting our kids todaywho are in an educational experience that for

(03:39):
large extents measured their intelligence based upontheir ability to memorize as opposed to being
conceptual thinkers. I think that's aloaded question, and it really starts with
reaching the student's heart. There isa wonderful educator that was trained by Aaron
Gruel of the Freedoms Long Beach Freedomwriters, and she wrote a book called

(04:01):
Teach from the Heart, and that'sher theme. That was the person who
trained me. And I think thatwhen I underwent her training, that perspective
was something that I learned firsthand,is not to look at a student as
just a student, but to lookat them as a human being. This
student that walks in, even ifyou have forty other kids, for example,
if you're teaching in California, maybetwenty eight, if you're teaching in

(04:21):
Ohio in one classroom, but thatstudent that comes in is just a soul.
It's one person that you need toreach. It's not just this person
isn't someone that's just digesting or ingestinginformation, but you need to be able
to connect with that individual. Sothat what that looks like is maybe asking
about their day. Maybe you havea reflective journal online since a lot of

(04:45):
us have had to be online becauseof the pandemic, so you might have
an ongoing dialogue with that student,something as simple as how is your day?
Sending them an email and they respondback, or if they're in your
classroom, just asking about them,or when you're going around checking work,
you can ask them about their day, see how they're doing see if they
have certain needs that you can maybeprovide or enquire about that the school may
be in a position to provide for, and just listening ultimately to what students

(05:09):
have to say. I think oneof the most important ways that you can
make a student feel empowered is toallow that student to lead, to give
that student some type of responsibility.Which is another thing I learned from Aaron
gruellis if you have a student that'sreally problematic in terms of their behavior,
not in who they are as anindividual, because we don't have problem humans.
We have humans that have problems,and so when you look at it

(05:31):
from that perspective, you can beginto assess what are ways that I could
put the student in leadership that Ican give them things that they may not
even trust themselves with, but theyrealize, Okay, I need to grow
up a little bit so that Ican hold this responsibility that this teacher is
entrusting me with. And that reallydoes work. And what you'll find is
when you do allow students who havechallenges, whether it's a behavior challenge,

(05:54):
whether it's a learning challenge, whateverit is, maybe social challenges, as
they are placed in leadership positions theyrise to the occasion, they very rarely
falter, and if they do,they have their other peers who are willing
to encourage them rather than laugh atthem or mess with them. And this
goes from kindergarten all the way upto like high school. What role and

(06:15):
how important it is that children knowthat we have high expectations for them.
I've heard and you've heard me useto quote, no one rises to low
expectations. That if you have ateacher or a parent who don't believe in
the kid's ability to do more,it will affect their vision of themselves.

(06:38):
All students need is one person tosay you can do it. When I
look at your story and how youknow, mister doctor Leroy Washington told you
you have greatness within you, andyou said me that was a life altering
moment. No one could predict whatyour destiny would be. But I think
about how many less rounds we havewalking in our classrooms, where we have

(06:59):
teachers who may be weighted down byall of the responsibilities that would have been
placed on us an administration with thepandemic, and so we may forget to
see our students. But if wecan remember that we have students who are
there and they need that confirmation,They need that reassurance that they have greatness
within them. I can think oftwo different occasions. One of my colleagues,

(07:20):
an amazing teacher, a wonderful teacher. She had a student who said,
oh, this is so hard,this is so hard, and she
said. She looked at her studentand she said, but can you do
it? And the student thought aboutit, Yes, I can do it,
you know. She just perped up, like I can do this,
you know. So you have thosemoments where a student may experience those frustrations

(07:43):
of I can't do this, andyou have to work with them and let
them know it's not about your mind, because the brain is so kind.
Academy has this little video that Ithink every teacher, every parent, anybody
that works with children in any capacity, or teenagers or youth or adolescents should
watch. And it's very short.It's called you Can Learn any Thing.
I think it's about may not evenbe a five minute video. They talk

(08:03):
about from a baby on from yourinfancy, how you're able to just take
in information and the human mind isincredible. I think what gets in the
way of human minds in our adolescence, and this can lead on into our
adulthood. Is that thought Either it'sthe voice of someone who told us that
we weren't enough, that we weren'tintelligent, which we find. Sometimes you

(08:24):
have people who are in leadership positionswho speak down to children, and those
children internalize that and for the restof their lives they don't rise to the
occasion because they believe what they heard. But if we can get students to
believe that they can do it,that they are intelligent, that just because
they may not think like everybody elsedoesn't mean that they're not gifted and talented
and special. It could mean thatthey're geniuses. It could mean that they

(08:46):
have a way of looking at thingsthat other people wouldn't look at, which
means that they have answers that otherpeople may not find. One is the
biggest lacking factor When kids have tolearn online versus being in the classroom with
a teacher. Teacher can see them, they can see the teacher, but

(09:07):
also being in a class in thecommunity of learning of the students, what's
the biggest disadvantage to that? Ithink the biggest disadvantage is the lack of
student engagement because you don't know asa teacher unless you've done your homework and
you're investigating what type of household thatstudent is in. So, for example,

(09:30):
they could be abused, they couldbe lacking in you know, finances
and resources. They may not havepower, they may not have electricity,
they may not have a lot offood. They may be taking care of
an ill parent or an ill sibling. They might be responsible for watching multiple
siblings. They might be left aloneand have so much time on their hands

(09:50):
that they don't know how to managebecause their brains aren't fully developed. But
they're forced to sit in front ofa computer and learn when they just want
to play their PlayStation or some othertype of video game. So I think
that is something that can be difficult. And you have so much enthusiasm,
which I know as in my DNAit may not be showing now, but
when I get in front of students, I come alive. And I think

(10:11):
that teachers who are able to connectwith their students and to really smile and
to really make them feel like they'rewith them even though they're not there,
and being accessible. So it meanssometimes as a pandemic teacher or as a
remote learning teacher, you need tobe even more accessible to your students.
So your office hours, you needto have them virtually. You need to

(10:33):
check on your students, call them. When I was doing remote learning,
I had to call my students everyday just to make sure or every week
to make sure that they were okay, and if they weren't, we did
check in. So let's do avirtual check in. Let's do a phone
call. What is it that youneed? How can I help you?
Because if they don't have that,then they feel abandoned, they feel isolated,
and they feel disempowered. And ourjob as educators again is to make

(10:56):
them feel empowered so that they cantackle this and take ownership over their own
learning. And they have to understandthat it's not just the teacher's part and
it's not just the student's part.It's a team effort. So is it
possible that in spite of the separationand kids are doing it at home remotely,

(11:18):
that you can create a sense ofconnectedness and a presence to the curriculum.
And also, something major that youare mentioning constantly is that in order
to correct, you must connect.Is it possible that you can connect remotely

(11:39):
to students in that learning process andcreate this experience where they want to learn
and they're able to apply what theylearn. It is and I think one
of the best ways to do this, and I'm not just saying this because
you're my dad to it's actually findother resources that you can bring in.
Now, this was I can giveyou an example. This wasn't remote learning,

(12:01):
but we did have a portion ofthe school year where it was remote
learning. But I had a situationwhere I had a class and for whatever
reason, I think it was justwe were just returning back from the pandemic.
It was a super small classroom.I'm used to teaching with about forty
kids in one class in a highschool setting. This was definitely not up
my alley. It was super small. Two students came to school that day
for that particular class, and Iremember thinking, how do I engage them?

(12:26):
And these were two students that hadsome severe behavior problems, not necessarily
with me and my classroom, butjust in general. They had a record.
They came to the school with anumber of behavior issues and had some
incidences at the school. And Ican remember having a feeling and you just
have to be open as a teacher, not to sound mystical or super spiritual
or super preachy, but you haveto be open to being willing to change

(12:48):
the program when you see that yourkids need something else that will get them
engaged. And so I've had afeeling that I needed to play one of
your videos and I did the Ratethe Dome, that Georgia Dome, and
I played it and I say,Okay, guys, we're gonna do something
different today. And they were like, what are we gonna do? Miss
Brown? And you know they're alreadybecause I'm a wacky teacher. I'm really

(13:11):
together now because I'm sitting in frontof you, but you know my personality,
how wacky I am. And Idon't hide my whackiness from my kids
because of my students. I don'thave kids, but my actual students,
because that's what they need. Theyneed to see your humanity in order to
learn. Sometimes you don't have toexpose all it for yourself to them,
but just enough where they feel like, Okay, I can I trust this
teacher, I can connect with thisteacher. I can learn with this teacher.

(13:31):
And so there's a method to themadness of how you present yourself to
your students not becoming right on theirlevel, but still becoming like reachable where
they can identify with you and realize, Okay, I'm not intimidated by this
teacher at all. You know,I know that this teacher will get me
in line if I get out ofline. But at the same time,
I respect this teacher because I knowthis teacher genuinely cares and they feel safe

(13:54):
where they can come to you.And so on this particular day, I
put on the Georgia Dome and Isay, guys, I'm going to introduce
you to my dad, and theygo, that's not your dad. They
saw like the they were looking atthe views and they were like, all
those fields, that's not I waslike, it is, like, seriously,
this guy's calmed out. Yes,this is my dad. They had
no idea who you were. Theywere super young high school. I think
this was like tenth grade Caucasian studentsin a rural area in Ohio where I

(14:18):
was teaching, and they were sothey were glued. They kept asking to
put it on Paul. So theywanted to stop and discuss. And normally,
as teachers, that's those are setupsthat we do, like we would
have a worksheet, ready to stop, to pause the video and to discuss
and asking a thought provoking questions toget them engaged. But they were really

(14:41):
just like, did he really doall of that? Did he really?
You know? They had questions theywanted to know, and they were so
excited, and they wanted to tellme what they wanted to do. So
one one of those two students toldme that, and they just opened up.
I mean they opened up in waysthat where I would I would have
sat them down and said, hey, talk to me. Even with me
being a personal teacher. They maynot have opened up to that degree.

(15:01):
But one student told me that hisparents he said, you know, when
I wake up, you know,my parents told me to go back to
sleep. They don't want me towake up. They're just tired of me.
He's in the tenth grade. Hesaid, I don't really know what
I want to be yet, butI don't know if my parents don't want
me to be anything. I don'tknow what I really want to be yet.
And then the other student he goes, well, I know what I
want to be. I want tobe a fitness instructor, but I want

(15:24):
to somehow make thousands of dollars andmillions, you know, doing fitness.
He was like, I don't knowif it's possible, but after listening to
this video, he said, Ithink I can do it. I'm gonna
have to figure this thing out.And I laughed so hard. This was
a student who we just received,who you know, couldn't go to any
other high school major behavior issues.But he was just fired up and he
told me his plan, and hehad a plan about how he started writing

(15:46):
stuff out and from then on hewas letting me know and giving me updates
on how he was doing with hisgoal of becoming a fitness trainer and making
thousands in fitness. But he feltlike he could do it because of identify
fine with your story. So Ithink that we have to remember that we're
not as teachers. We are notthe only people that can teach our students.

(16:06):
We need guest speakers, we needvideos, we need things that can
engage them and empower them so thatthey can see beyond us, they can
see other people that they can connectwith as well, so they know that
they can do it. If you'rejust joining us, I'm talking with Samya
Brown. This is my daughter andone of my daughters, and she is

(16:26):
an instructor, she's a teacher andshe loves it and kids they love her,
and many of them that you're astudent because you're so short. I
remember in school, you used tobe late to class and you've got reprimanded
for that. And I ask youwhy you continuously late to class and you

(16:47):
said because I got shortly. AndI am not ashamed to throw that school
out Westville North High School, tobe exact. But the principal at that
time, mister James McCann, whoI still I'm forty three, still in
toil with that, with that principle, he was that amazing um. But
yes, it wasn't him. Itwas the attendance office. I just going

(17:07):
from one side of the building becauseit's a it's a one level school,
but it's so large, and mylittle legs just could not make it to
class. I'm like, what isgoing on? So I was always slightly
late, like I would always comeright when the belt rang I was walking
through the door if I had aclass that was from on one side of
the building to the other, andI actually asked, I tried to negotiate,
please, like guys, I havelittle legs, like I'm the the

(17:29):
size of your average third grade orcould you please give me extra minute?
And they're like no, no,no, no, you can't wouldn't give
me that extra yeah, and youcan't run in the hall. So I
was really like, what do youwant me to do here? This is
a dilemma. What do you thinkabout holding children's attention? Young people?

(17:52):
And you think about you're competing withthe computer, with iPads and all types
of video games. How do webegin to capture their minds and their imagination
when they have instruments that have beendesigned by algorithms to distract them and to
hold their attension to the extent theynow have counselors and different types of therapies

(18:18):
to break the addiction to videos forchildren, very young kids. That's a
good question. I think as aneducator, you can't live under a rock.
So this past year I didn't teach, so I'm not teaching this school
year. If I was teaching,I would be more active on social media,
both on Instagram and Facebook, Likeevery single day I would be looking.

(18:41):
Even though I know some educators wouldthink, how would you have time
to do that? But as faras I'm concerned. That's a part of
my lesson planning because I need toknow what's out there that's going to engage
my students, and you have tothink outside of the box. Obviously it
has to be school appropriate, butif you can find something that's outside of
the box. I think there wassomething I can't remember what lesson, but
years ago there was a video thatwas going viral where a young girl was

(19:04):
doing a video tutorial and she curledher hair in the hole. She burned
her hair off, but just awhole piece of her hair was on the
curling iron. And I remember studentstalking about it and we worked that into
a lesson and how some kids neversaw it and they were so engaged because
it was something that they were interestedin. So you have to find out
and let students teach you. SoI don't know a lot about football or

(19:26):
different types of sports. I probablyam more familiar with basketball, But when
I found out what my students wereinterested in, I would tell them,
well, you do know that youhave an assignment this semester. One of
your assignments is going to be teachingme something I don't know that you're interested
in. So you've got to teachme about it. And so when you
get them again in a position wherethey can teach, where they are able
to educate you as a and Ilet them know just like I'm learning,

(19:49):
just like you're learning from me,I'm learning from you. So I'm a
teacher, but I'm also a student. You never stop learning, you never
get to the point where you knoweverything. I also think that because of
the pandemic, we have the advantageof all schools basically being a level playing
field as it relates to technology andhaving access to the technology that they need
both in school and at home.I think prior to the pandemic we ran

(20:12):
into challenges where some kids may nothave had a laptop at home or they
may have had to share it withother siblings. Where the pandemic mandated that
students have access to education, totechnology both in school and out of school.
So using technological resources that are upand coming, different types of learning

(20:33):
games that you can play to engagethem. It's a lot of fun.
You can find games that are verysimilar to Jeopardy, but that are kids
friendly that teenagers will like. AndI'm telling you, even teaching high school,
the older kids that are and somepeople would say are harder to engage
if if you find out what they'relistening to, what music they're listening to
find out if it's school appropriate,or find the clean versions of that,

(20:56):
work that into your classroom, intoyour environment, working into your curriculum.
Them use music videos to teach lessons. So for example, I think there
is a Holocaust unit that I didand I used a song I think it
was by Bad Wolves that really calledzombies that really engage the students, used
a video that they were able tobuild off of and get interested in it.

(21:18):
Because these students are they're not justinterested in books. And I hate
to say that as just but welive in a different society where we have
to engage them because they're digital globalcitizens. So we have to empower them
and use resources that they have accessto that they're interested in in order to
teach them. So it looks whatthat looks like is just grabbing other resources

(21:40):
and adding that to the curriculum.Given the pandemic, given remote learning,
what role and what can parents doto complement what teachers attempting to do in
terms of capturing the minds of thestudents and being able to stimulate that thirst

(22:03):
to want to learn and keep themengaged once they get that attention. What
role can parents play that will besupportive and fill in the gap the missing
pieces of not being the classroom withother students and the teacher, and that
you're not able to read and seewhat's going on with them because they're physically

(22:26):
someplace else. I think that parentsjust have to simply be interested in their
children, period. And I thinkone of the things that you did,
you and my mother did, isthat you both showed an interest in me
as a human. First before Iwas a student, I was your daughter,
and I knew that. So becausewe had that relationship, that expectation

(22:48):
that both of you placed upon meto do well in school and to do
my best was something that I tookseriously because I knew that you cared.
So I think it first starts withI know, I really feel for parents.
I really do. I'm not aparent, I don't have kids,
but I can only imagine how difficultit would be to navigate teaching your students,
basically being a teacher to your students, especially if you have multiple kids

(23:11):
in various ages, and then alsoworking and then also being you know,
mister mom or missus mom or misterdad and missus dad, whatever you have
to be to your family wearing somany hats. So I think that there's
a few things they need to do, and I'll just make it brief.
They need to take time for themselvesfirst and make sure that they have their
own some type of peace when theywake up to just kind of before they

(23:36):
because they have so many hats towear, they have to even if it's
five minutes of quiet time that theycan take for themselves, thirty twenty whatever
they can take before they start topour out to their kids. Then they
need to ask their kids, youknow, just sit down, without any
judgment, how school going for you? How do you feel about school?
And whatever their kids say, maybenot light into them, but just come
from a place of Okay, well, I'm going to help with this as

(24:00):
best I can. You know,I'm working as well, but I'm going
to monitor what you do. Let'slook at this homework. And it doesn't
mean that you take hours upon hours, because that parent may not have hours,
but even five dedicated minutes and justbeing in the presence of your child.
So like if you're working one thingthat used to do growing up which
was very helpful is if you wereworking on something, you put us to

(24:21):
work. Now now, now Ifeel like the students have to do their
work too, But if you wereif we were to do this now and
I was a child in the pandemic, I know that I would be working
on my schoolwork and you would beright next to me doing your work.
And I know that that may bedifficult for some people. They might have
to mute their mics if they're doinglive zooms with their job, as opposed

(24:44):
to their kids doing zooms. Butif you can just be in proximity of
your child, if you're at homewith them, I think that will help
because you don't necessarily need to talkto them all the time, but just
be in their presence. They don'tfeel alone, and they have a sense
of accountability that's present there with them. I think would help. That's just
one. I mean there's many otherways, but I'll to stop. Her

(25:04):
name is Samea Brown. We're goingto be doing the training with children,
young people, and I believe,as we know, they're forty of our
population but one hundred percent of ourfuture. And I'm just so proud of
you that you have a hard forstudents. This is who you are,
this is what you love, andyour students love you, and it's obvious.

(25:26):
It just shows it's a difference betweenbeing in something and that's something being
in you. Semea Brown got alittle short, lads, but she's a
bad somebody. Of it here,of it here. By the thank you
baby, I love you, Ilove you too. You were listening to

(25:48):
Less Brown Greatness radio positive and motivationalcontent curated by the legendary Less Brown