Dear SEMIS Coalition Members,
This time last year, as I was writing this monthly blog, I found myself thinking about the changing of seasons, how the seasons connect to our collaborative and individual processes of transformation, and the power of relationships to support us as we navigate change. This year, as the colors change and the temperature begins to drop again, the SEMIS Coalition planning team finds itself embarking on our own transformational change – the exciting transition of our very own Willie King III from a SEMIS Coalition planning team member to an 8th grade math teacher in Detroit.
As with all change, this one is a bit bittersweet. But, as you’ll read below, there’s a sort of ‘full-circleness’ to this moment, as well. Like SEMIS’ own approach to change, Willie’s story is rooted in transformative relationships – those he formed before and during his time on the SEMIS planning team that brought him here and the role he hopes to play in the lives of the young people he’ll work with so closely moving forward.
To recognize this moment and all of the contributions Willie made during his four years on the SEMIS Coalition planning team, this month’s blog is a celebration of Willie’s story as a place-based educator so far, and what he’s thinking about as he enters his next chapter. And, as would only be fit, we’re doing it in the style of Willie’s regular Youth Voice blogs (read more of those here!) – an open-ended, free flowing conversation (or, at least my best attempt at one). An excerpt of our conversation is below, but you can also read the full transcript here. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did and that you’ll join us in celebrating the start of this next chapter for our beloved teammate and friend.
Willie King III addresses the participants of SEMIS Coalition Community Forum 2021 (left) Teaching a Photo Voice lesson to students at Holmes Elementary School in Ypsilanti (right)
(AB) I wanted to start this conversation with the theme of identity because I know that’s a big part of your approach to education and place-based education. Could you start by telling us about your own identity and how are you prioritizing bringing that identity to your whole career?
(WK) I would say that my identity is wrapped up into three categories: my environment, my journey, and the future. My environment can be described as a young, Black or African American male from Detroit, Michigan, on the west side. And I let that shape my identity and my persona in terms of knowing where I came from and knowing where I’m going. But always reminding myself that knowing where I came from got me to where I am. It was the hardships (which I guess gets into the journey) – the troubled times, the good times, the bad times – having the ability to walk so many paths but also observe so many paths that allowed me to figure out what was best for me and then what was best for community. Which I guess gets me to the third part which is the future. I think I recognized when I was 22 that I am a man of service. And if that service comes in the form of me as an educator, I’m okay with it. If it comes in the form of me as an activist, I’m okay with it. If it comes in the form of me just being a representation for what it’s like to be a young Black male or a leader, I’ve always been okay with stepping up to the role, especially if it means that I am allowed to uplift and be of service to someone else.
(AB) Those are all really things I’ve seen show up in how you approach your work with SEMIS. I’m also curious to hear from you, when you’re thinking about bringing identity to the forefront as an educator, what are you prioritizing in that?
(WK) For me, I guess it would be trying to be as authentic as possible when it comes to identity. And I think a lot of that came from having walked so many paths of life as a youth. From being the emo kid, to being the nerd who was on debate team and on the forensic team and all that, to being the cool kid, to being the class clown. As I got older and I grew, I realized I don’t have one set identity but what I do have is transparency in the sense of how I show up as an educator – you are going to be able to see all of that in one block. You’re going to see the fun side, you’re going to see the serious side, you’re going to see the animated side, you’re going to see all of that because my identity is not shaped in one way. It’s shaped almost like a rainbow – it has so many colors to the point where it allows certain students and certain youth, or even individuals, to gravitate to me because they see certain bits and pieces of themselves within my identity because I show up in so many colors. There is no one ‘set’ so I don’t walk in and say ‘Oh, I’m going to be an educator today.’ No, I’m going to be Willie, who just happens to be teaching today and I’m going to teach it to the best of my ability but I’m going to teach it in the way I want to teach it. It’s not saying I don’t recognize the power and positions that I have, I just know that if I don’t show up my way then I am showing up short. And I never want to shortchange anybody. It also allows you to build value in relationships. People get to connect with a version of you that can be a reflection of a path or journey they have took and it allows you to nurture that particular path or relationship that they’re grounded in, you know. So I could show up and only be 50% of me, but then I’m holding back a 50% and that’s not fair to the relationship you’re trying to establish.
(AB) I’d love to hear from you when you knew you wanted to be a teacher and how that’s changed over the course of your education and your career so far.
(WK) It was sometime in high school, probably my senior year, being bored in class and trying to figure out what I’m going to do with my life. I loved poetry. I knew I wanted to go into some form of creative writing. I knew I wanted to be able to express myself, but I also realized that once I leave high school what can I do with my gifts or what can I provide back to people. And I thought back to all of my teachers that I had. All of my male teachers have been like superheroes for me. They’ve been father figures, they’ve been role models, they’ve been guides, they’ve been friends, and what they did not know was that I was going through some of my hardest times ever as a student. So many hard times, both in high school and middle school and elementary, but the male teachers were people that I identified with. So going into teaching truthfully was never really about teaching, it was always really about mentorship. I felt like that would be an opportunity where I would be able to provide mentorship and kind of get paid a decent amount for mentoring (laughs). But education for me has always been a gateway to get out of my environment and I wanted to be able to provide people with that same opportunity. At least from my experience now – you’re with a student at least 8 hours out the day. That’s more time than they spend with their own parents sometimes. So you have an opportunity to guide someone and redirect and provide them with opportunities that they might not even get at home.
Willie King III and Dr. Ethan Lowenstein (left) Willie King III and Dr. Iman Grewal (right)
(AB) So you went through school and you were having teaching experiences throughout undergrad and then when you got to graduation, you came and worked with SEMIS, which meant not being in the classroom. Can you talk a little bit about that time and how you were thinking about your role as an educator?
(WK) A lot of it goes to Ethan (Lowenstein). Ethan was looking for a mentee and I was in a position where I kind of needed a mentor in my life. We had a phone conversation and I told him that the male mentors in my life kind of sucked. Which I think placed some sort of expectation on him to kind of step up (laughs). We had a series of conversations of just talking, but his need to want to push me made me feel valued. He allowed me to sit in on his doctoral class where I got to see him teach firsthand – really being able to watch a master at work. He provided me with an opportunity to be the director of the NSBE Jr. program at Ypsilanti Community Schools which was through Dr. Jennifer Banks at the Washtenaw Intermediate School District. So while I’m working at Washtenaw International High School, I’m working as the director (of NSBE) and having conversations with Dr. Banks, I’m also sitting in on Ethan’s doctoral class and also having phone conversations with Ethan, and also I think I was running another club or something – like I was doing five different things at one time. My transition into SEMIS was a transition that is based off of relationships. You know how SEMIS is very strong on relationships and coalition, it was my opportunity and my exposure to the current relationships SEMIS had to offer that made that transition easier… It just felt like a full-circle moment, you know. It felt like it was an opportunity to provide service again.
(AB) I’m curious about your memory of your first connection to place-based education – when did you start to hear the word ‘place-based’ and what did you think?
(WK) It would have to be through Iman – Dr. Grewal. I think we have always talked about people are doing place-based education without them knowing they’re doing place-based education. I think my exposure to place-based education was in her class in 2016. She made us all get up and start to dance. Mind you, I’m walking 40 minutes to school every day. I have to leave at a certain time to walk 40 minutes back so I can clock in to work. I am, like, facing eviction and all of this stuff, like typical college undergrad broke things, but this teacher has me dancing. Not only does she have me dancing but she’s consistently talking about teaching with love. Her way of breaking away from a typical education session and just providing a sense of home and a sense of recognizing this is where we’re at in time and the world needs love, I think was my first exposure to place-based education. Overall staying connected with her, her coming on as my first real mentor, I got to see place-based education in a different light and start to see how people were starting to connect education with place and how important where you’re at in place can be used in education. And then when I came on at SEMIS it was like, okay you’ve been exposed to it but now you are like on the front lines of it all. You’re now seeing how it can change a classroom, how it can change you as an educator, how it can change your approach. My approach to education is in place-based, so everything I’m going to do is going to have a connection to where we’re at in the city of Detroit and how I’m going to use that to incorporate different elements. Bringing stories into how I teach and make things make more sense.
(AB) What were some of the most impactful parts of your time at the SEMIS Coalition?
(WK) Teaching with Paula Sizemore for the first time. She shared a little bit about that story about the kid sleeping in the classroom. In my mind I think the kid sleeping is a little bit disrespectful but … you never know what a kid is going through before school or even after school where they have to go to. And that was something Paula taught me. Tracy Ortiz – her approach to education. She come off very gentle and nice but when she’s in that classroom she’s a stern teacher (laughs) but she provides and breathes life into her students. Ryan Bodary, his approach to education is unique. There is really no way to describe him as an educator but it was one of them things where having an opportunity to work with him, talk with him, and see how he uplifts his students voices in the classroom is something that empowered me to want to do that with other kids. Kim Sherrobi in the sense of a community partner who is embedded into community and empowering community and knowing what is going on in the community made me want to be more of an activist for the city of Detroit but also be a bridge between SEMIS and Detroit. And then it’s the Community Forum… I watched kids that I worked with from September all the way to April not be interested in certain things and then Community Forum come around and you see an instant change. And it makes the work that you do feel worthwhile, knowing that you are able to provide kids not only a platform to speak at a university but an opportunity to connect with other kids. An opportunity to be on a bus for 20 minutes and drive somewhere outside of their environment and then see that the work you’re doing is not just being done alone in your classroom, it’s being done all across southeast Michigan. And then the parks. SEMIS made me remember how much I love outside. You know, somehow, some way over time, things had gotten too hard for me to be able to just sit down and just take in the air, look at the grass, sit in the grass, run from the bees (laughs), talk about flowers. In my time at SEMIS I’ve been exposed to so many different parks, so many different ecosystems. So, just the beauty of being exposed.
(AB) So you are about a week into your next chapter in your career as an educator. What does being a place-based educator mean to you now?
(WK) I feel like this moment is special because this is an opportunity for me to not only showcase different strengths and gifts that I have, but also an opportunity to expose a community to everything that I have learned within the last four years. And to do it in a way where only I can do it. I know that it is going to be not only fun but it’s also going to be scary. I have to be able to consistently be me and try not to change within a system that is going to consistently try to straighten me out. I had told someone on the phone that it used to take me like a month and a half for a classroom to recognize that I’m different. These kids have been able to see it within the last four days – from day one who are you, to day two okay this is he, to day three to see me teach, and then today they’re hand shaking, claps. That usually takes like 5 weeks in doing the work I used to do. The scary part is, you know, how long can I keep it up? And then the fun part is, what can come out of this. I don’t think they trust me all the way now, but if I have kids to be able to lock in with me just within the first four days it’s almost kind of scary to think what might come out of this in two months. What can I do in four months? If I come back and teach another year and I have one year under my belt – what more can I do? So it’s kind of scary right now, but if you know anything about me, I’m going to grow regardless and I’ve learned more than anything from other people but I think people also learned from me and how I operate. So I have an opportunity to grow within the community but I also have an opportunity to grow a community.
(AB) I know you know this, but SEMIS has your back if or when it does start to wear you down. Across the Coalition you have people in your corner who want to see you succeed – whatever that looks like.
(WK) And I think that’s what it is, you know I’ve mentioned it before, sometimes for our SEMIS teachers the [professional development] is useful, but it’s also good just to be around and be in community with other people who think and view the world like you do and I think that is what I need, and you know I’m blessed to still have an opportunity to be in the Coalition to know that when that time do call, I have a community I can rely on that see the world more than just a classroom. It’s fun and scary right now, but only the future can tell.
Willie King III and Renaissance High School student presenters at Community Forum 2023 (left) Willie King III and SEMIS colleague, Sarah Halson in the Rouge Park prairie (right)
To read the full transcript from this interview with Willie King III, please Click Here.
In Partnership,
Anna
Director, SEMIS Coalition | abalzer1@emich.edu
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