Cherie Danielle Anthony

I grew up faith-based, and I still am. I'm a millennial, and we were taught by boomers a certain level of dedication to something. My mom was at First Horizon for 46 years, started at 19, didn't retire until she became a retiree this past year at 67. She rose in the company from temporary typist all the way up to retiring with a nice salary. We learned that kind of dedication from them. For me, every time I get in a role and I showcase what I'm able to do, how I'm able to move students and build relationships at the same time, and show a certain level of leadership in the classroom, which then leads to leadership outside of the classroom, that's what drives me. It started with teacher mentor, making sure new teachers on the block had what they needed. I was full-on belly pregnant, in North Memphis, Frayser area breaking up fights, making sure my belly didn't get hit, trying to make sure all the teachers on my hall had their resources. Building relationships with students that kind of had a label of they'll never do a lot of things - those are the kids to me that have been the most loyal. I saw a student from that very school, Josiah, at Moe's about four months ago. He remembered me from 4th grade at Coleman Elementary, and he told me he was still an A student. That's rewarding. That's fulfilling to know that you stayed on track.

The most realistic advice I've gotten is 'just make it till May.' I've had leaders who weren't supportive, situations where I wanted to leave education because so much was going on, and that advice kept me going. When I became a parent, I realized we just can't quit, we just can't quit today. I've had a desk thrown at me by a student who came back and hugged me later and was so apologetic- that day was just not his day. Just make it till May has been the most realistic in my field. But the greatest advice I've received was from William Johnson, who was an assistant principal when I was 28 and working as a coach. The teachers were fighting me back extremely hard because they had never used data as an opportunity for reteach. He told me, 'Ms. Anthony, coach is an action word. You know all the data, you know how to read it, you know how to tell the teachers how to analyze it, what to do with it, but until they see you are part of the work, they won't respect you. You won't have any buy-in.' That's when my favorite line became 'can I teach for you?' I made a layman's terms evaluation rubric and let teachers evaluate me. It took the weight of them feeling like I was coaching them off, because then they felt like we were in this together. That advice has stuck with me about five years now, even moving forward in my career.

Stay passionate about what you're doing, or leave the field. Because once you lose that, you have lost every piece of whatever you can give them once you no longer believe they can perform. Education is very much so an act of service every day. Servanthood is what education is. If you don't take that mindset in there, the first desk you get thrown at you, you're quitting. The first child that spits on you or bites you clear through the flesh and you gotta get a TB test, you'll quit. If there's not a level of malleability and you can't be flexible or moldable, you might as well quit now. Every year brings a different level of growth, professionally and personally, and life doesn't stop with your years of education. You're going to run into bad leaders or leaders that weren't for your time - sometimes they're not bad and maybe you need to mature, sometimes they aren't the best and they have to mature. You have to learn how to navigate that and still have a respect for the kids. You have to know that although you might not care for someone personally, you do have to work with them professionally, and you might even respect what they bring to the table professionally. If you cannot be flexible and fly in multiple settings, because you never know from year to year where the Lord is going to place you, who you'll be of service to, what group of children and what group of adults you'll be of service to - if you're not flexible, you don't have the passion, and you know it's going to be a challenge to stay the long haul, then this is just not the career for you. Stay passionate, because every year, passion will fade with the politics of things.

The greatest challenge now is intrinsic motivation. There is a difference between how I grew up and even the kids I started with - we did not have a problem with intrinsic motivation and effort given. This is a new generation where when you ask them what they want to be, they say YouTubers. They don't see the benefit in education as they did when I was in school, because we had a plan laid out. Everybody I grew up with had a plan etched out based on whatever your career path was. Now, sometimes I'm even confused - it's 7th grade, they don't have to have it all together, but they don't have an inkling. I had some kids this year who come to school because they know it's obligatory, like it's an obligation they have to do and fulfill. How do you teach complex characters when you're also dealing with learning deficits? I'm teaching somebody that doesn't have intrinsic motivation, and then you're 3, 4 grade levels behind at the same time, and I'm trying to teach you complex characters, and I gotta start with the word 'complex.' The retention of teachers is also not good in education. I worked for a local charter and we lost 13 teachers in one year. At the school I'm at now, I was the only certified teacher on the hall. The kids feel like there's not a level of consistency with education - nobody is really wanting to invest in them and actually making sure that they have the education that they need. Then you have parents who are confused about the content once they get past a certain level, especially in the inner city. If I'm talking to a parent and they don't understand the content, how do they help their students? So now you got lack of parental support, now you got not on grade level, and now you have no intrinsic motivation. That's education now.