Welcome Back

Dear friends, families, educators, scholars, and everybody else: you will be happy to know that I, Mr. Reed, have come back home. I am no longer on the Dark Side of education. I have left my role in school administration, as a Dean of Students, and have found my way back into the classroom. WE BACK!

For a little background, I started (student) teaching 4th Grade in 2016. To introduce myself to my scholars and their families, I recorded a music video which showed viewers who I was and what I was about. That music video, titled, “Welcome to the 4th Grade”, went viral. Millions of views, Good Morning America interview, news everything, the works. That was the moment I was catapulted into the national spotlight as an educator.

From there, I moved into my first official teaching role as a 5th Grade teacher. Living and teaching on the West Side of Chicago was exciting, but certainly came with its challenges. I loved the personality of the students and their families. I hated my experience working at a particular charter school. In fact, five months into my career, I took a medical leave of absence because things felt too heavy to me. Fortunately, I returned and finished the school year, but I left after that.

This was when I made my transition into the public school system. Initially, I worked for the Chicago Public Schools district as a Youth Behavioral Interventionist. Basically, my role was to build relationships with scholars who needed a little extra love, then to provide them with the tools and guidance to experience success within their class setting. That role was fun. It was hard, but it was fun! This is the moment where I realized that if I could do this, here, I could do anything, anywhere else in the world!

While I was experiencing success, my wife, who was also a teacher at the time, was struggling. Her co-teacher quit a few months into the school year, leaving her to teach almost 50 fourth and fifth graders at the same time. She was teaching math, science, language arts, and whatever pieces of social studies she could if time allowed. Simoné was drained and frustrated daily, so I knew I had to do something about it. I left my position as a behavioral interventionist and became the new ELA/SS teacher at the school alongside my wife.

Ahh, 2020. A new year filled with hope, promise, and success lied ahead. (Or, so we thought). Teaching was going well, my wife and I were great teammates, and the kids were making significant progress academically. Then, March 2020 rolled around, and the whole world stopped. I’ll spare you the details, but virtual teaching was a doozy. We made it through, but boy, was it a wild time.

Speaking of which, my wife had become pregnant during this time and we were overcome with joy! Unfortunately, school officials demanded that teachers head back into their classrooms. I was not OK with this, since my wife was, at the time, 7 months pregnant. So, with no vaccine, no proper precautions in place, and no real reason to get kids back into school except for capitalism, I protested. I taught virtually outside of my school building, in the snow, to demonstrate that I could be just as effective of an educator from my computer as I could be in a classroom, FROM MY COMPUTER.

Long story short, I got fired from CPS. Though I wanted to work, they locked all my accounts and stopped paying me. My wife was allowed to teach virtually from home (thank God), but I was not. Looking back on it, my heart hurts most for those kids. I would see and speak with them from Simone’s account, and the most gutting question I’d have to field daily was, “Mr. Reed, when are you coming back?” I never got that chance. But I plan to be at their 8th Grade graduation this year, so at least there’s some solace in that.

After leaving CPS, I transitioned to a private, Christian school, to work as a Dean of Students. I loved absolutely everything about this role! First, I was able to exercise my faith freely amongst my staff-mates and students. Secondly, I could float around the building all day, helping where I was needed at any given moment. Next, I taught an SEL (social-emotional learning) class to each grade once a week. Lastly, as the Dean, the role allowed me the opportunity to be on the admin team.

Being an administrator for a school is fulfilling, but challenging. Everyone expects you to the make the “right” decision, but most often, that just means making the decision they feel is right to them. This is tough when there are dozens of staff members and hundreds of families. Speaking of which, interacting with parents and caregivers can be tricky, too. Though my interactions with most were fine, I did have a few moments where I dropped the ball and made serious mistakes. That’s life though. Make mistakes, but be sure to learn from them.

One of my biggest takeaways after being an administrator is to remember that the person in this role is most likely trying their hardest to be the best leader they can be. There’s tons of passion needed, but there’s also loads of pressure placed on them, so everyone would do well to show their administrators a little grace.

And that brings me to now…

My Dean role was dope, but the job was just too far from home. Two total hours of travel each day was not sustainable for me and my family. So, I searched for a job closer to home. I’ve also always been interested in a Social Studies position, and after a few months of looking, I found one! Yep! Mr. Reed is now an 8th Grade Social Studies teacher here in Chicago!

My journey in education these past 8 years has been an eventful one. I’ve made many mistakes publicly and privately. I’ve failed too many times to recall. I’ve wondered if I should even continue in this space. But I’ve also seen great success. I’ve literally witnessed how my words and thoughts have shifted and re-shaped education in this country. God has blessed me to become a thought-leader in education, and I know my impact reaches far and wide. I am humbled by this.

But we just gettin’ started!

Be filled with love. Be excited to learn. Be intentional to serve. Be happy to be there. And most of all, be THAT teacher.

Mr. Reed