“Know What You Want”

An interview with Ms. Arab, a teacher at Banaadir Academy

My Journey to Becoming a Teacher

My name is Nimo Arab. I was born in Somalia, grew up in Kenya, [and] came here when I was 11...10 years old. I started elementary school in St. Paul. [I] went to Highwood Hill Elementary school. Didn’t know a word of English. I mean, I knew a couple of curse words (laughs). One of my classmates taught me the ABC’s and how to spell my last name. They started me off with fifth grade even though I was old enough to be in sixth grade since I didn’t know anything. I went to Battle Creek Middle School [and] Harding High School.  

I had a really good teacher in seventh grade. She moved to New York my sophomore year of high school 'cause her boyfriend got a new job over there. She was definitely one of the first ones [to inspire me to be a teacher]. She showed me she cared a lot more than anybody did. Also, my sixth grade teacher. She’s a principal somewhere in St. Paul. So I would say those two. My ESL teacher, she’s like super old (laughs). [She was] my ESL teacher when I was in fifth grade, so she was pretty nice too. But I would say my seventh grade teacher was one of the top ones for me. It was the simple things [she did]. One of the things was when we were writing about a topic she always used to tell me, “Tell me about yourself. Don’t worry about anything, just tell me about yourself”. I wasn’t a good writer, so [now I tell my students], "Just tell me about yourself." I think that she cared a lot more than anybody did. She used to call my mom a lot too, or my sister (1), when I was having issues with other kids and when I wasn’t as good. I guess she just showed me that she cared a lot more than other teachers.

I wanted to be a nurse at first. I took some nursing classes. I started taking IB classes (2) junior year [of high school]. By that time I wasn’t a newcomer, so it was like I knew what I was doing. [I] tried super hard, [but I] hate blood so...(laughs). And then my senior year we had to volunteer certain hours, so I used to volunteer at a homeless shelter. But it was hard to get a ride there, so my sister was like, “Hey, why don’t you just volunteer at your old elementary school?”, because it was down the block. So I started volunteering my senior year in high school. They put me in a class where there was a couple of newcomers. So I started working with them because they had no idea what was going on because the teacher was Caucasian and they were super new to the country. So it was really nice seeing kids [begin to understand] simple concepts like 2+2 'cause they didn’t know what the teacher was saying. So that’s when I decided that I wanted to be a teacher. That’s also when I told my family that I didn’t want to be a nurse. They had a hard time, but they dealt with it, and that was that. When I graduated from Harding High School I applied for the U (3) [and] got accepted to it…[but] my dad passed away, so I couldn’t go to school that year. And I was in a good place, so I decided to not go [to college] and work for the family and stuff. And then I was like, “Hey, I don’t want to miss another semester”, so I went to Century College, got my two years, transferred to Metro State University, and that’s where I graduated from.

1. Map of Somalia

3. Map of Minnesota

2. Map of Kenya

My Passion for Teaching

Explaining a simple concept and seeing the kid get it [is my favorite part of being a teacher]! That’s pretty sweet. And that’s one of the reasons we, [as teachers,] are here. I can say from last year that I had a girl, She was a newcomer. I taught her how to hold her pencil 'cause she never went to school before. And then she passed her ESL (4) test at the end of the school year. So that was pretty amazing [and] one of the reasons that I came back here. [I wanted] to help those type of kids.

[The hardest part of teaching is] doing everything, meeting with every kid. It’s really hard when there’s only one of you in the classroom, having that time with each one of your kids [and] knowing what’s going on with every kid in your classroom. I think that’s the most difficult thing 'cause if a kid has a hard time in your classroom and he was perfect yesterday, [then] there’s something going on at home, so you have to call people, figure out what’s going on. Some kids play mind games. That’s hard too sometimes. I think that would be one of the challenges that I go through day to day, just having that one on one with every kid.

[I teach elementary school] because I never had that experience with older kids. I did fourth grade when I came here, two weeks after I graduated [from college in December 2015]. I can’t deal with kids with attitude, that’s like one thing that I can’t do. So that’s when I asked if I could do second grade or lower. I never tried [teaching middle or high schoolers]. I might one of these days, but like eighth graders are as tall as me, so I don’t know. I started volunteering with elementary school and then I just stuck with it.

Patience is super important if you’re dealing with kids. Especially if you’re dealing with 20 kids, being patient is really important. Building relationships is number one when it comes to teaching. If you don’t have that, the kids are not going to listen to you period. It took me a couple of months to figure that out.

[If I could have my students remember me for one thing it would be] that I care. Not even what I teach or what I taught, just that I care about them personally.

[I would advise future teachers to] take a lot of classroom management classes. If you cannot deal with urban kids, do not apply to urban schools (laughs).... That’s what I’d say 'cause it’s hard. We had a couple of teachers that were super new, and they decided to apply to Banaadir which is like full urban. They had a super hard time, and I’m sure that they don’t want to be a teacher anymore because of that. So make sure you take a lot of classroom management [classes]. And know what you want.

4.

Defying the Odds

I got married super young. Being a mother, a wife, and a student was pretty difficult, but I did it for my kids. I wanted to become a good example for my kids. I pulled a lot of all-nighters 'Cause it’s not easy being a mother, a full time student and also having a good GPA. It was hard, but my husband was a lot of help, so it was good. Both of my older kids, they were there at my graduation, so that was pretty amazing. As a teacher I’m at where I want to be…I think I’m more proud of being a mother than a teacher, so I guess if you say like, “What are you proud of as a human being?”...like being a mother. [I am also proud of] having my four year degree or my master [degree] in the next three years or so. In this way I can be a good example for my kids. That’s number one for me.

My sister raised me, so I guess I did everything for myself instead of having a parent at home who cares about what I was doing. So I did everything I did for myself because I wanted to be someone. Growing up it was super important for our family to be somewhere in the medical field so like being a doctor or a nurse. My dad was a teacher, but I never thought about being a teacher 'till I was a senior in high school. I volunteered a couple of times too. I took some college classes. I didn’t want to deal with old people, that was weird (laughs), and I hate blood, so that was a couple of red flags. But when it comes to family, they were always wanting me to be a doctor or a nurse. And then they had a hard time accepting that [I wanted to be a teacher] because they were like (in a mocking voice), “You’re not gonna make any money…blah blah blah”. Growing up I never wanted to be a teacher. I didn’t tell them [that I was going to be a teacher] 'till I applied and got accepted to Metro. That’s when I told them I didn’t want to be  nurse or a doctor or anything that has to do with [the] medical field. A couple of them yelled at me and stuff, but they dealt with it 'cause it was my life; they had to deal with it. Nowadays, they’re okay with it. They know that I want to get my masters and they were like, “You should go for it...Become a principal...That’s gonna be nice...You'll make more money!” (laughs).

5.

Completing my Dream

I’m gonna go back to school in the next two years or so, get my masters, and become a principal, run a school. I’m not that old so [there are still some things that I want to accomplish]. And when I retire I’m not planning to stay here or anything. I want to go live in a real super poor country and help out with school. In the long run, I would like to buy a book mobile, live in a very poor country, and just drive around village to village, helping kids. That’s what I want to do.

6.

Footnotes:

(1) Because her sister was the one that played a main role in raising her, she often referred to her as mom
(2) International Baccalaureate courses that are taken in high school; comparable to AP or Advanced Placement courses
(3) University of Minnesota
(4) English as a Second Language

Picture Credits:

1. Aggreko.com 
2. freeworldmaps.net
3. commons.wikimedia.org
4. http://springhillnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Brainwave.jpg
5. http://www.adoptioninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Family-Silhouette-3.jpg
6. franklingranislebookmobil.org

Story Facilitators:

Paige Newman, Su Ah Lee, Alec Basten, and Brady Houk