Glenmuir High teacher encourages students to push past failure
Published:Monday | September 19, 2022 | 12:06 AMCecelia Campbell-Livingston/Gleaner Writer
Glenmuir High teacher Cameil Williams-Allen knows all about failure and having to keep pushing herself, and she makes no secret about it to her students in the classroom.
Cognisant of the reality that some students might be feeling disappointed after not scoring the desired Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) results they hoped for, Williams Allen is sharing her story of four-time failure so they can “brush off” their bottoms and make another attempt.
“I attended Vere Technical High at the time and when I was going to school I just chose the subjects that I liked, but I remember my teacher, his name is Adrian Sinclair, telling me, girl you going to regret not doing maths in school, also my English teacher telling me, girl you gonna regret because I waste time in those subjects,” she recalled.
Reality struck for Williams-Allen after leaving high school and wanting to work on her goal of being a teacher. She appliedto Bethlehem Moravian College and was told she needed a pass in maths and English to be accepted.
“What am I going to do now when the teachers warned me that I needed those and I would live to regret it and at that moment, I lived to regret it. So, I had to go to evening classes and not with a proper mindset,” she shared with The Gleaner.
For four years straight she attended evening classes, sitting and resitting the two exams which remained elusive earning grade five in them at the four attempts …while her college prospects remained on hold.
LOOKED AT THE PRIZE
“In the fifth go I made up my mind, because when I looked at the prize, the prize was to become a teacher and I realised that if I don’t pass maths and English I would not be able to live my dream, so I buckle up, I made up my mind that I have to pass maths and English,” she shared adding to applied even more effort, studying harder and earned a grade three.
“I was still not able to acquire one or two, but that allowed me to matriculate into university, so I say to you students do not give up,” she quipped.
Pointing to herself for inspiration she said she tries to motivate, instil discipline and passion into her teaching. She shared also that she always encourage her students by constantly telling her story and working with them as well.
“I work with them because sometimes you might have a weak student, you give them a on- on=one, keep motivating, keep pushing, reminding them on their purpose in the classroom and their life and that is my approach for them,” she shared.
Williams-Allen has also taken her motivation to the social media platform where she uses humorous mini skits on TikTok garnering over 400,000 followers and over a million likes as ginger18888.
“I just want everybody to be encouraged be strong and know that we as teachers we do make mistakes, we do fail and I am being real. Show you the real me so that you can know no matter how low you are you can build up,” she said.