You’ve probably seen Mr. Baker on the second floor of AMS threatening kids with his bat. If not, you’ve probably seen him in the papers with the wrestling team. A lot of kids have been in his classroom but do not know a lot about him. I sat down with Mr. Baker to get to know him better.
How long have you been teaching?
I have been teaching— this is my 10th year. This is my 10th year teaching.
Did you start at AMS?
Yeah, AMS was my first school.
What’s your favorite part of teaching?
One of my favorite parts of teaching is seeing the aha moment in a student once they work through a challenging problem or are able to understand a new concept or idea. I also really enjoy working with the youth because they are engaged more than they know in what they’re learning. They may try to act like they don’t care, but I can see that it really does have some importance in their life, and I try my best to show them that importance.
Also, I get to walk around with a bat.
How have you grown as a teacher?
I would say I’m much more patient. If I had to compare myself from my first year to my current year, I’m much more patient. I spend a lot more time asking students follow-up questions instead of giving them answers right away, which pushes them to think critically and puts the learning on them. I’d also say I’m a lot nicer. I’ll just leave it there. I’m a lot nicer.
What was the biggest turning point in your life in becoming a teacher?
The biggest turning point in my life in becoming a teacher was probably the pandemic. I’d say when the early days when we were still in school and we weren’t too sure what was going on. With COVID I was really focused on making sure that my students were able to learn the content through a take-home packet. And then once we realized we would be on lockdown, transitioning that into being able to learn through the computer. But after a while, it really set in that it was more important to just keep a space where they could come and have a space to talk. I tried to teach a little bit, but really it was just a check-in with everyone in class to try and bring back some type of normalcy. That made me realize that it’s really important to foster relationships, not necessarily amongst myself with the students, but as a group, making sure that as a whole they have this idea of being one class or one grade whole or one community together and then working through that.
Okay. I got this from Ryder. He said Bo Bassett is like your role model, and I wanted to know why, and do you have any others?
That’s absolutely not true. Bo Bassett is a child. I do not consider him a role model at all. If children would like to consider him a role model, that’s cool. I’d say one of my role models would be— well, you all don’t know him, but he’s a doctor. His name is Ojereshe Momoh. He’s one of my role models. I’d also say the brothers of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Incorporated as a whole are a set of role models for myself. And I’d even put my father in there. My father is a role model as well.
Is anything else important to you other than your coaching/teaching life?
Yeah, I— the most important thing to me in my life is my family. My daughter, my wife, my brothers and sisters, my cousins, my uncles, my aunts, my boys, my bros, all that. My family is extremely important to me. That’s why when 3:05 hits, I try to make sure to switch out from Mr. Baker to Chaka so that I can focus on them and give them my time and my energy.
And I believe you’re Trinidadian and Black. What does your identity mean to you?
As a— well, my father’s Trinidadian and my mother is Black American. So I’ve always seen that as a duality. On my father’s side, I’m considered first-generation American, but obviously on my mother’s side, we’ve been American since the ships. That dual identity of being Caribbean and Black American pushes me a lot as far as what I want to do for my family as far as where we’ve come from to where we are now, as well as understanding the challenges and the difficulties it is to be a child of immigrants in America today, especially with the current administration, which has Done a very good job, unfortunately, of ridiculing and attacking and singling out immigrants and children of immigrants.
How has having a daughter changed your life?
I get a lot less sleep. But honestly, it’s made me as well much more patient, much more understanding. Caused me to refocus and like leave a lot of things that take up my time that I don’t necessarily need, that I’d rather be spending doing with my daughter. It’s also unfortunately when I look at the students in the building, I can unfortunately like picture what they look like as babies and it makes me such a pushover. So I have to remember to like remind myself that you all are like 11 and not 2 months old.
How has your identity developed as you’ve gotten older?
Um, that’s a good question. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve had to make decisions that affect me in the long term. I’d say in my early 20s, especially my teenage years, I really only thought about short-term goals. Short-term pleasures as far as like, well, I want to do this because it makes me happy versus what I should be doing. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned that I need to take my time. I need to understand how this affects me in the moment, the next day, the next year, and going forward. I’d also say as I’ve gotten older, I’ve had to make sure that I have distinct personalities for things I do. So unfortunately, Jaiteh, you probably will never know who Chaka is, but you have a good idea of Mr. Baker. So I have to keep those two people, unfortunately, separated, which is something I think many people do.
What’s some advice you have for the youth?
Don’t rush life. If you’re 12 years old, there’s no reason to try and pretend that you’re 18. If you’re 18 years old, it’s no sense in trying to pretend that you’re 25. Enjoy the time that you’re young. Take the time to learn as much as you can, to experience as much as you can. Get off your phone a little more. Engage with your friends in real time, in real places, doing real things. I’m not saying that like you can’t have social media, but you know, like, you know, go outside, go to the park, go to the mall. Don’t do teen takeovers, but like go to the mall, have some fun with your friends, play, enjoy life, ’cause it’s beautiful and we’re only here for a little bit of time. Yeah. All right.
