Nancy Czach

I am an AACPS: Employee

We all grow up knowing we have to work to be successful. You have to like what you do to be happy to go to work each day.   I work at Chesapeake High School in the Decision Making Room with children that have problems with teachers or just have had a bad day.  These students have troubling understanding at times what is right and wrong. Their grades are low and the way they think they can make it better is to act out in class. These students act out because they are being picked on for wearing the same clothes all the time or so many other reasons. So my job is to  find a way to help make things better. I spend my day trying getting to the root of the problem and often find that they are hungry, homeless, or have had a bad time at home. Once we help address these needs, they are back to class and back on track. But not everything is an easy fix.

I have had many students who have struggled in their freshman year and their sophomore year but graduated on time. To help students meet this goal, I do a check where they connect with me and each day we talk. I make sure they have supplies or just something to eat and then it is off to their day they go. As seniors I find I never see them except a “good morning” at the door. The best part of all that is when I sit with the class at graduation and watch all of the students walk across stage. Every school has a Sam, Lauren, Doug, and Chuck,* but I know I helped them as much as I could to be all they can be later on. Chuck still comes back to see me and well Sam, he is just Sam.

I have even had some children who play sports to help them be successful. I had one child join the track team. It forced him to keep his grades up and he graduated on time. Today he is out working and getting ready to start a family of his own.

At the end of each day I coach unified sports (at this time in my life I only coach one sport: Bowling). It’s a wonderful way to end your day. You see a different side of children. You get to see children helping others when they are part of sports because they must maintain a 2.0 GPA to participate. For me it’s not all about winning, which may not be the right thing to say, but it is about having fun. We do have fun because at the end–we are all winners. We are there to teach children sportsmanship and to be competitive and not take it too far (something we need to teach the coaches this too). At the end we want them to be the best they can be. In athletics you meet the child that wants to be there and learn something new, usually they are good all-around students.  These are kids that are not in my room each day except to stick their head in and say hello.

*Student names have been changed to protect their privacy.