Being That Teacher

She tried another professional field after college, but the course of history brought James to her career in the classroom, at the same middle school she attended. She admired the women in her family who taught during the Jim Crow era, a time when teaching provided one of the few professions that welcomed Black women. “They served in the vanguard who uplifted their communities through education,” James says. “All of the professional women that were in my family, my aunts and my great aunts, they were all educators. I think that’s what I saw, and that’s what I wanted to be. I do believe that it was my chosen profession, because I absolutely love teaching.”

I can make or break a student’s life by the words I say, by the encouragement I give them, and by the knowledge I share with them.

James uses love for her students to connect with them. “I try to treat my students as if they were my own children. There’s a story I tell every year on the first day of school. I show a picture of my own sons, which I’m the proud mom of three sons, all college graduates, all professionals. I tell my students, ‘I don’t see my sons every day, but I see you every day. I’m going to develop a love for you. If it’s me giving you something a little harder or something that pushes you, it’s because I see the best in you.’”

A National Board Certified Teacher in her seventeenth year of teaching, James keeps all of her lesson plans and worksheets, but she never teaches the exact same lesson. “I may use this story. I may use this text. I may use this book. But I’m always going to add to it, teaching hard subjects, using English language arts, and making those things relevant. That’s one of the things that helps me with my success.”

Success means engaging students. James raises the bar, and her students rise to the occasion. She uses primary sources in her class, including items from the National Humanities Center’s resources for educators. From 2013 to 2019, her students worked with primary sources to develop different humanities-based exhibits each year. “The project was based upon books, and it was based upon my students reading the theme for that year’s books. Our first year, the exhibit was about the Holocaust. The Arkansas Jewish Federation actually invited my students to present.” Other exhibits included Heroes in History and Writers Around the World. In 2019, James’s pre-Advanced Placement English students used artwork and artifacts from archives and museums to present We the People: Stories of Hope at National Park College. The previous year, James’s eighth graders, including Audrey Carr, presented We the People: Our Stories. James developed a reading list based on student input. “Books address serious issues,” Carr said in 2018. “Books entertain millions; books educate everyone.” Students saw knowledge as a connecting force. “If we were all connected, then big world problems wouldn’t be so big anymore.”

As a mother of three currently pursuing an education degree, I’ve faced many challenges. During moments of doubt, depression, anxiety, and times when I felt like giving up, Ms. James has been a constant source of support, reminding me that I am resilient, tenacious, and strong.

–Ashley, a former student

Whether connecting students to their local community or the global community, James wants to give them a voice and for them all to feel heard. She recalls one student who wrote an essay describing a teacher who made her feel invisible. “She talked about how the teacher didn’t see her because of her ethnic background,” recalled James. “And she said, ‘She never picked me for anything. I wish there was a way that I could show her that I matter, I’m smart, I can do.’ So I told her, ‘You’re presenting.’ She presented Selena Gomez for our Heroes in History exhibit. I said, ‘I’m going to make sure that teacher comes to see you present.’ After it was over, she hugged me and she cried. She said, ‘I got a chance to show that teacher, ‘You didn’t think I was smart, you didn’t believe in me, but Miss James did.’” The father of another student, who thought his child was too shy to speak before a public audience, approached James after her exhibit to thank her for giving his daughter confidence. “I saw him six months ago,” said James. “She’s graduated from college and she has a job working for the Department of Education. He said, ‘We owe you a lot.’”

Serving on the Teacher Advisory Council

With her success in engaging and developing students, James became a participant in humanities education on the state and national level. She served a one-year term on the National Humanities Center’s Teacher Advisory Council. “I was very excited to be chosen,” she says. Visiting the Center in North Carolina was even more exciting. “Oh my gosh, I could live there. It’s such a beautiful site, such a beautiful building, such amazing things going on there. It opened my eyes to what the NHC actually involves. Because you can hear about things, but until you actually visit and see what’s going on, you really don’t understand the magnitude of it.” The impression that sticks with James comes from something she saw when she first entered the Teachers’ Commons at the Center. A plaque in the area reads: This gathering place, at the heart of the National Humanities Center, is dedicated to all those who teach us—sharing the known, igniting a fire to discover the unknown, and nurturing a bright future. “I saw that and I said, ‘This is me; this is what I do.”

Followed By Millions

On TikTok, James is known by her handle @iamthatenglishteacher. The handle translates to being that teacher, the one who goes all out to make her students successful. She shares sixty-second lessons; in a recent post about comma placement, she stands before a whiteboard, leading eager students. “Because you’ve been absent this week, you must work hard. Where does the comma go?” A wave of voices floods the classroom with their answers. She has their attention and engagement. James has more than 5.8 million followers from all over the world, and 44 million likes. Her followers comment on both her teaching and her style. “See, this would have interested me in school,” wrote one follower. In another post, James discusses the wisdom teachers can learn from students, like changing the return-from-break writing prompt. “Not everyone got the latest video game. Not everyone went to Disney World for Christmas. Some of our students, sadly, were just in survival mode.” She recommends teachers ask students about their goals for the year instead.

James was recently offered a non-teaching job with much better pay, perks, and travel. She declined. “I want to be happy when I wake up every morning. As a teacher, what you bring in as a salary may not be that much. What you have the potential for putting out is something that will last for a lifetime. That’s what a legacy is.”