Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1426376
"To make it as real as possible, my students are studying credit, small businesses, and the impact of the pandemic on those things." The Los Angeles Times called it "one teacher 's quest to track down her students" in an April story. Other local media said she was heroic for her abil- ity to "overcome her students' lack of participation" and reach out to them. At first, many students did not respond to her messages. Some lacked Wi-Fi at home. Others were caring for young siblings. Williams left message after message with par- ents. Her grandmother, a native of Belize, left mes- sages in Spanish (RISE's student population is almost three-quarters Hispanic and about one-quarter Black). Wil- liams connected families to school resources to ensure students had internet access and devices. She helped them and their families overcome the chal- lenges of distance learning, the digital divide and the language barrier. Williams relied on her relationships with the students, as she told radio station KCRW. "It becomes easier over time, especially when students know where your heart is. So if I'm telling the student 'Hey, I didn't get an assignment, what's going on?' they 're more likely to tell me or just submit it because they know that I'm coming from a place of love." Still, some of her students lacked enough credits to graduate. She met with them one-to-one on Zoom so they could catch up, get the credits they needed and graduate with their class. "I got many thank-you emails for this," says Williams, a member of United Teachers Los Angeles. "Some students sent apologies for not trying beforehand, or for giving me a hard time. But they were very appreciative." This school year the challenges have con- tinued. Project-based learning (PBL) has always been a priority at RISE, a school of business and entrepreneurship. To meet that challenge in a pandemic, PBL transi- tioned online. " To make it as real as possible, my students are studying credit, small businesses, and the impact of the Keara Williams pandemic on those things. Some are writing about what is going on in their community with small businesses. Some are creating brochures informing the community about Small Business Administration loans. Students are writ- ing advertising for businesses, along with interviewing business owners and analyzing data. This is all done virtually." Williams graduated from UCLA's teacher education program in 2017 and was part of its first ethnic studies cohort. She serves as adviser to the Black Student Union at her school, and her goal is making sure that Black students are as represented as possible in AP courses. She has just applied to enter UCLA's Ph.D. program in educa- tion, with an emphasis on race. Bridgette Moore, who graduated last June, calls Williams her role model. "We students did not make it easy for her," says Moore, who attends West Los Angeles Community College and plans on becoming a lawyer. "I had a lot of attitude and sometimes frustration with the work. But she was patient, support- ive, and had a big heart. She prepared me for the real world. She helped me to become the best version of myself." UTLA called Williams a "she-ro" for her fruitful connections with students. About the Illustrations K E L L Y M A L K A is a Los Angeles-based illustrator whose work has appeared in, among others, the LA Times, Rock the Vote, The Pad Project, Nike and Zappos (which commissioned the art at left for #WorldTeachersDay 2020). kellymalka.com 23 D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 0 / J A N U A R Y 2 0 21