Top 5 techniques of an excellent teacher

On May 6, the day after he was named the Muscogee County School District 2016 Teacher of the Year, the Ledger-Enquirer visited Stefan Lawrence’s classroom at Carver High School to learn why the Muscogee Educational Excellence Foundation selected him among the 53 nominees.

The L-E witnessed Lawrence guide his 11^th-grade American literature class through an examination of the poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes. And we were mighty impressed.

In a tour de force of more than an hour, Lawrence captivated his students with a mix of passion and compassion, focus and fun. But we aren’t education experts, so we asked English teacher Sheryl Green of Jordan Vocational High School, the district’s 2015 Teacher of the Year, to read a transcript of Lawrence’s lesson and provide us with an analysis.

First, here’s the poem:

I’ve known rivers:

I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I’ve known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Now, here’s Green’s analysis, the top five effective teaching techniques Lawrence displayed.

1. Connection between literature and today’s art

“Oftentimes, especially with literature dating back decades, students have a major disconnect between the literature and themselves,” Green wrote. “Effective teachers like Mr. Lawrence must, therefore, draw the students in, and a good way to do such is to make the literature relative to the students in the ‘here and now.’ Mr. Lawrence draws several parallels between the literature of the past and the ‘literature’ of today — music. He mentioned several musical artists that would be familiar to the current student — everyone from Marvin Gaye to Jay Z to Beyoncé.”

Lawrence: “What’s the tone of that poem?”

James: “It’s really calm, like he’s telling about his background.”

Lawrence: “Very calm, right? I like that. Let’s stick with calm. All right.”

He asks a girl whether she still is dating a certain boy. She says yes.

Lawrence: “Good. OK.”

Then he pretends to be her boyfriend.

Lawrence: “‘You know when you get little attitude of yours, you know, when your lips start poking? Girl, hey, you need to calm down!’”

As the student and her classmates enjoy their teacher’s skit, he pretends to be the girlfriend.

Lawrence: “‘You don’t never take me anywhere.’ And he says, ‘Well, I’m going to take you out.’ Y’all just had a fight, so it’s got to be somewhere nice, because he just messed up.”

Student: “I don’t know.”

Lawrence: “You better not say no McDonald’s. He messed up.”

Students suggest O’Charley’s and Smokey Bones.

Lawrence: “Let’s go with Smokey Bones. … How do they keep it in Smokey Bones, the lighting?”

Student: “Dim.”

Lawrence: “Dim, right? Dim calms us down. Let’s look at the words. Let’s look at why James is saying the tone of the poem is calm. Find me dim words.”

Student: “Lulled.”

Lawrence: “Lulled, like a what? If I lulled you to sleep, …”

Student: “A lullaby.”

Lawrence: “Like a lullaby. Think about basketball, Daniel, right? I’ve got my crossover. I’m setting it up. I’m trying to lull you to sleep. What am I doing? Slow rocking a little bit. Boom. Boom. That’s what I’m trying to do: get you to relax. Then I’m gone. Lullaby, right? We sing it to babies, right? Give me a another dim word.”

Student: “Sunset.”

Lawrence: “Sunset. Tiana, you and your imaginary boyfriend …”

Everyone laughs, including Tiana.

Lawrence: “Beach. Towels. You’re watching the sun go down. Santa Monica. You, bathing suit. Him, swimming trunks. Y’all are there. Sunset. It’s beautiful. Look at the picture. Beautiful words. What else?”

Student: “Dusky.”

Lawrence: “Dusky. Give me the definition of that.”

Student: “Shadowy.”

Lawrence: “Shadowy, right? … What else? Give me another dim word.”

Student: “Singing.”

Lawrence: “Singing, which is incorporated in that lullaby, right? Who could Beyonce not put to sleep, right, with that beautiful, angelic voice? It can’t be Rihanna because you’re going to be trying to turn it up. So it’s got to be somebody like Jill Scott or somebody like Erykah Badu.”

Another teacher sticks his head through the doorway and Lawrence asks him, “Hey, you’re going on a date with a girl and you’re riding in the car, are you going to play Rihanna or Erykah Badu?”

Teacher: “Neither of the above. It depends on what kind of girl.”

Lawrence: “She’s classy.”

Teacher: “Something nice and slow, something old school … maybe Marvin Gaye.”

Lawrence: “Marvin Gaye. There it is. That’s it, right? Calm, just take your time with it. Y’all ever heard Marvin Gaye sing the National Anthem? … No? 1983 NBA All-Star Game, Marvin Gaye sings the National Anthem.”

Student: “I wasn’t born then.”

Lawrence: “It don’t matter.”

He asks someone to turn off the lights as he turns on his classroom’s SmartBoard and plays a video of Gaye’s performance.

Lawrence: “He turns the National Anthem into something else. Listen to this. Look at how many dim words you can apply to Marvin Gaye in this National Anthem.”

After playing Gaye’s slow, mellow version of the National Anthem, Lawrence says, “Most people, when they sing the National Anthem, it doesn’t take them 3 minutes.”

2. Personal anecdotes

“Another effective technique quality teachers use is making the literature relevant to themselves,” Green wrote. “Of course, one would assume English teachers always connect to the literature, but that is a fallacy. Students are keenly aware of moments when the literature under study has a real and true effect on the instructor. In this particular case, several times Mr. Lawrence mentions how much he loves the poem being studied. He blatantly even calls the poem one of his favorites. In addition, he tells a few anecdotes to help the students understand his personal connection with the message of the poem. This technique is not from the land of ‘academia’ but is one of the most powerful tools a teacher has in his/her repertoire. Such personal connections give students a license to make a connection as well, and that is always a good thing.”

Lawrence: “Langston Hughes, the poet, is speaking. He uses first-person to express the experience and the identity of what?”

Student: “The entire community.”

Lawrence: “The entire community. Now, this is important. … Remember the story I told you about Harry Vernon, the old principal of Carver? Was that this class? All right, check it out. This is pretty cool. So we had a luncheon, a teacher luncheon. … I walk in — y’all know I’m in school (at the University of Georgia) to be a principal, right? — I walk in, and every living principal of Carver High School is eating at the table, and Mr. Lindsey is serving them their plates. And they look at me and say, ‘Hey, isn’t this your Teacher of the Year? This guy was just telling us you want to be a principal.’ And I’m like, ‘Wow. These old men know who I am.’ I go over to them, and the oldest one, the one who took over after Dr. Charleston, the first principal of Carver. He said, ‘What school are you going to?’ I said, ‘UGA, sir.’ Now, listen to this: He said he got turned down by UGA. Like 10 times he applied and got denied. Why do you think that is?”

Student: “Because he’s black.”

Lawrence: “UGA wasn’t integrated yet, right? So I’m thinking, ‘If I tried to get a girl’s number 10 times and 10 times she told me no, what do you think Coach Lawrence is doing?

Student: “Coach Lawrence is going to stop.”

Lawrence: “Yeah, I’m done.”

Student: “Move on to the next one.”

Lawrence: “On to the next one. I’m not going to get denied a million times. So I asked him, ‘Mr. Vernon, why did you keep applying and getting denied. It makes no sense to me.’ Do you know what this man told me? Listen to this. It’s crazy. He says, ‘I kept letting them tell me no so eventually they would tell you yes.’ And I’m sitting there like, ‘Wow!’ The guy never met me before, doesn’t know me from a can of paint, doesn’t know my parents — nobody, right? And he’s thinking about people who are going to come after him, right? … So 30, 40 years later, here I come, and get to go to UGA because people like him came before me, right? That is what we’re talking about with community. Community is important. It means you come together. Remember, ‘C-O-M-M’ communication. We’re coming together to get something done.”

3. Leading questions

“Sometimes teachers fall into the trap of telling kids the answer,” Green wrote. “Teachers have a point that needs to be made and a time restraint in which to make it. Therefore, the mistake teachers often make is to ask the question, pause for an answer briefly, and if no answer is given or an incorrect answer is provided, teachers blurt the correct answer and move on. In this lesson, one can see Mr. Lawrence patiently lead students down the path to the correct answer, to his desired point of the inquiry. You’ll notice many questions asked. Simple questions at times. These are necessary in order to guide the students to the answer and not simply reveal it to them from the teacher’s understanding. Leading questions are good because they allow the students to process and think. The end result is a deeper understanding of the content.”

For example, Lawrence leads the students toward the definition of “renaissance.”

Now, what does renaissance mean? Y’all will make your social studies teachers proud.”

Student: “A renaissance is like …”

Lawrence: “One word. What does it mean?”

Student: “Start?”

Lawrence: “Re-something.”

Student: “Restart?”

Student: “Renew?”

Student: “Rebirth?”

Lawrence: “Rebirth. … Thank you. … So if you’ve got to be reborn, that means you had to be what?”

Student: “You died?”

Lawrence: “You had to be dead. What was dead? The literature, the music, right?”

4. Building a foundation for learning

“This technique is perhaps the most evident in the lesson,” Green wrote. “Notice how many times Mr. Lawrence refers back to a previously studied work or author. Also notice how much discussion occurs before the poem is even read. A great deal. So many instructional ‘good stuff’ occurs before the poem is even read. A strong connection, a strong foundation is laid beforehand, and that alone would invite students into a deeper understanding of the text. A firm foundation will allow the students to make insightful interpretations of the poem that perhaps they might have missed if they read the poem in isolation.”

For example, Lawrence asks the students, “What’s that quote from Emerson at the end of ‘Self-Reliance’? … Come on. We said it 50 million times. ‘To be great …’”

Student: “‘To be great is to be understood …”

Lawrence: “To be …”

Students: “Misunderstood.”

Lawrence: “Misunderstood, right? So what would have all of us in here done after we write our first book and it sells 50 copies?”

Student: “Done something else.”

Lawrence: “We’d be done, done, man. That’s a wrap for us. You’re a writer and you’re selling 50 copies?”

Student: “Ain’t no more writing.”

Lawrence: “Ain’t no more writing. Walt Whitman didn’t stop, though, because he understood that this was new and that this was great, and to be great means you’ve got to be different, and to be different means people won’t understand you. And if people don’t understand you, what comes next? We talked about this in propaganda.”

Student: “Fear.”

Lawrence: “Fear. Then after fear?”

Student: “Hate.”

Lawrence: “Hate, right? And remember, Emerson gives us those examples. Remember that list of names? Jesus was different. Socrates was different.”

5. Using the literature to challenge and inspire

“Again, this technique is not necessarily taught in teacher-prep school,” Green wrote. “It doesn’t exist in the realm of academia, but the talent is impressively important, especially with kids who need to hear about the importance of good choices and a strong education. Mr. Lawrence effortlessly uses the literature and his connective art (the musical references) to challenge the kids to make good choices in their lives. He also takes many opportunities to invite his students to recognize the power of a good education. Several times he uses the literature to speak life into his kids. When students sense that literature is a powerful motivator, they might reconsider the mundane, outdated perception they once had towards literature.”

For example, Lawrence tells his students: “So with Langston Hughes comes a voice that is fresh, a voice that is not heard from a lot, which is why we want y’all to do so well in college and to do so well at Carver, right? The world deserves to hear what you go through, too.”

MORE EXTENSIVE VERSION OF TRANSCRIPT

Lawrence guides the students through an examination of the poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes.

Lawrence: “This ain’t our first time being exposed to Mr. Hughes, right? Y’all remember the other poems we had from him way, way back?”

He recites the opening lines of the Hughes poem “I, Too.”

“I, too, sing America.

“I am the darker brother.

“They send me to eat in the kitchen.

“When company comes.”

Lawrence: “Then we read ‘Harlem,’ right?”

He recites the opening lines of that Hughes poem as well.

“What happens to a dream deferred?

“Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”

Lawrence: “Langston Hughes is synonymous with what time period?”

Student: “The Renaissance.”

Lawrence: “What renaissance?

Student: “Harlem?”

Lawrence: “The Harlem Renaissance, right? That’s different from the Renaissance. (With a British accent, he continues). Ohhh, how art thou? That’s the Renaissance, right?”

Then he gives another example of language during the Renaissance, generally considered from 1300 to 1600 in Europse, compared to the Harlem Renaissance, generally considered from 1918 (the end of World War I) to the mid-1930s in New York City.

Lawrence: “My smooth dairy product attracts all the gentlemen to the recreational field.”

Then he says the same content with modern standard speech.

Lawrence: “A milkshake brings all the boys to the yard, right? Harlem, though, y’all know what Harlem looks like. Harlem looks like us, right?”

Every student in Lawrence’s class, at least this day, is black.

Lawrence: “What sends all these people to Harlem?”

Student: “To hear the music.”

Lawrence: “The music ain’t why they went to Harlem. They created music when … sir?”

Student: “Jobs.”

Lawrence: “Jobs. Remember the industrial boom? These blacks are coming from the South because they’re looking for what?”

Student: “Jobs.”

Lawrence: “Jobs and work. So they migrated, and then you got all these black minds getting together, right? And you get a boom in music, like jazz, right? You get a boom in poetry. You get a boom in literature, like Zora Neale Hurston, right? You get a boom in art, like Jacob Lawrence, right? It’s a renaissance. Now, what does renaissance mean? Y’all will make your social studies teachers proud.”

Student: “A renaissance is like …”

Lawrence: “One word. What does it mean?”

Student: “Start?”

Lawrence: “Re-something.”

Student: “Restart?”

Student: “Renew?”

Student: “Rebirth?”

Lawrence: “Rebirth. … Thank you. … So if you’ve got to be reborn, that means you had to be what?”

Student: “You died?”

Lawrence: “You had to be dead. What was dead? The literature, the music, right? Name an African-American writer before the Harlem Renaissance. We’ve only talked about two in here, well, three.”

Student: “Frederick Douglass.”

Lawrence: “Frederick Douglass is one. … All three of them were slaves. Phillis …”

Student: “Phillis Wheatley.”

Lawrence: “Phillis Wheatley (and) the guy on the boat, the slave narrative that recounts the Middle Passage. What’s the guy on the boat’s name? Equi …”

Student: “Equiano.”

Lawrence: “(Olaudah) Equiano. I know it was all the way back at the beginning of the semester. All right? Equiano. Every other African-American writer we’ve had was a slave. Langston Hughes is not a slave. All right? Harlem, right? Ghetto. He’s got to recount the life. He’s got to capture the life of the ghetto. Now, remember what we’ve said about poetry: Poets say a lot without saying a lot. That’s what makes them impressive. That’s what Nikki Giovanni said. … That’s why everybody can’t be a poet. Think about your music. There are a lot of rappers but very few poets, right? Like J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar, they’re over here, and the Migos and Young Buck and all them, they’re in this group, right? And, yeah, this part might make money, but we look at the difference. Like y’all were saying, ‘We’ve got to be in a certain mood to listen to J. Cole,’ because you’re mind is ready to process it, right? So we’re going to look at Mr. Hughes in this poem here. It’s one of my favorites. Daniel, why don’t you read this. Read the background first.”

Daniel: “‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers’ was Langston Hughes’ first great poem. Hughes is said to have written it when he was a senior in high school.”

Lawrence: “How old are y’all?”

Students: “Seventeen.”

Lawrence: “Y’all are basically what?”

Students: “Seniors.”

Lawrence: “Seniors, OK? So Langston Hughes is y’all’s age when he wrote this poem. Keep that in mind.”

Daniel continues reading the background: “After it was published several years later, Hughes’ poetry was influenced by Carl Sandburg and by Walt Whitman.”

Lawrence: “Walt Whitman. We know that name, the creator of what?”

Student: “Individualism?”

Lawrence: “He didn’t create individualism. What did he create because of individualism? … Come on. I told y’all: You hear Walt Whitman’s name, there’s one thing you’re supposed to say.”

Student: “Individualism?”

Lawrence: “No, that’s (Ralph Waldo) Emerson.”

Student: “Self-reliance.”

Lawrence: “That’s Emerson.”

He then recites the opening lines of “Song of Myself” by Whitman:

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself

“And what I assume you shall assume,

“For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.”

Lawrence: “Free verse, y’all. … Walt Whitman created free verse poetry. Why y’all looking at me like it’s the first time y’all heard this?”

Student: “It’s like ‘The Raven.’”

Lawrence: “No, ‘The Raven’ is narrative poetry. Walt Whitman, remember his poetry looks like a paragraph. Y’all were like, ‘This is a poem?’ It was long.”

Student: “Wait …”

Lawrence: “No, no, ain’t no wait, wait, because y’all looking at me crazy. Hold on.”

Lawrence flips through the textbook.

Lawrence: “It’s important. You’ve got to understand Whitman because this is Langston Hughes’ influence. If you don’t get Walt Whitman, you can’t get Hughes for real. All right, turn to 436. Y’all should remember this. Y’all making me nervous about what y’all did on that Milestones test if y’all forgot who Walt Whitman was.”

Student: “Walt Whitman wasn’t on the test.”

Lawrence: “There was no Walt Whitman on the test? … Shocker. … Wow. … All right, so we see Walt Whitman here, right? Remember that Whitman was all about being an individual, right? Remember, nobody had done free verse poetry. Remember we talked about this. Remember how many copies of ‘Leaves of Grass’ he sold?”

Student: “We didn’t read this poem. We read the one about America singing.”

Lawrence: “We read part of this one too. We didn’t read all of it; it’s super long. But remember when he came out with ‘Leaves of Grass,’ remember how many copies he sold?”

Student: “Was it like 50 copies?”

Lawrence: “It was like 50 copies, right? It did horrible.”

Student: “Because people didn’t understand.”

Lawrence: “Because people didn’t understand. Remember we went into this conversation, right? Remember that quote from Emerson? What’s that quote from Emerson at the end of ‘Self-Reliance’? … Come on. We said it 50 million times. ‘To be great …’”

Student: “‘To be great is to be understood …”

Lawrence: “To be …”

Students: “Misunderstood.”

Lawrence: “Misunderstood, right? So what would have all of us in here done after we write our first book and it sells 50 copies?”

Student: “Done something else.”

Lawrence: “We’d be done, done, man. That’s a wrap for us. You’re a writer and you’re selling 50 copies?”

Student: “Ain’t no more writing.”

Lawrence: “Ain’t no more writing. Walt Whitman didn’t stop, though, because he understood that this was new and that this was great, and to be great means you’ve got to be different, and to be different means people won’t understand you. And if people don’t understand you, what comes next? We talked about this in propaganda.”

Student: “Fear.”

Lawrence: “Fear. Then after fear?”

Student: “Hate.”

Lawrence: “Hate, right? And remember, Emerson gives us those examples. Remember that list of names? Jesus was different. Socrates was different.”

Student: “Martin Luther King.”

Lawrence. “No, not Martin Luther King. Martin Luther, the Protestant reformer. Copernicus. Galileo. Sir Isaac Newton, right? They’re coming up with things like gravity, or stupid ideas like, ‘The world is round,’ or retarded comments like, ‘The Sun is in the middle of the solar system.’ All right? Kicked out of the Church! So to be great means to be misunderstood, right? … Y’all hear some of the stuff that gets said about our president, I mean just ignorant stuff. They’re criticizing him because they’re saying he used his presidential pull and that’s the only reason the girl got into Harvard, right? Like she’s incapable of being a Harvard grad. George Bush went to Harvard, right? Like, people got to Harvard. It’s crazy. Yeah, both her parents went. So it’s not crazy to think the lady can go to Harvard, but people just criticize. They hate what they don’t understand. Has this happened to you? Adrian?”

Adrian: “Yeah, it’s happened to me.”

Lawrence: “It’s happened to y’all. It’s happened to me – several times, right? People just don’t get you.”

Then he gives an example of an ignorant comment somebody told him.

Lawrence: “‘How are you from Beallwood if you don’t smoke weed? … ‘He’s not from Beallwood.’ That’s what comes next. … Remember Frederick Douglass? Remember he wrote so well, people doubted he was ever a slave? … So when we talk about individualism, when we talk about being misunderstood, Langston Hughes is another one of these, right? Black poet at this time period in America is just unheard of, right? But when you’re misunderstood and you’re great, that gives you an aspect to be different. It gives you a chance to be a voice that doesn’t get heard a lot.”

Student: “Your own kind of great.”

Lawrence: “Exactly. That’s what your principal (Chris Lindsey) said to me last night, when I won that award: ‘You have a chance to speak for people who normally don’t get their story told.’ Not a lot of people get their story told, right? Whole pages of history missing. So with Langston Hughes comes a voice that is fresh, a voice that is not heard from a lot, which is why we want y’all to do so well in college and to do so well at Carver, right? The world deserves to hear what you go through too. I was kind of disappointed I was the only person to get something in the Page One Awards. Thirteen categories, and I’m the only one from Carver to get something. And I know what kind of kids we got here. You just got to keep …

Student: “Pushing.”

Lawrence: “Pushing, right? You need to get your story out there. You don’t have to be somebody’s employee. Y’all know that, right? There’s entrepreneurs. Y’all can do that, right? Professional athletes. Whatever. You just got to make up your mind that’s what you want, because your story needs to be told. That’s what it is. To live and die and never have your story told, that’s, that’s sad, right? What are we here for? You live and die and nobody cares? … We don’t want that. So let’s look at Mr. Hughes, right? He’s got somebody like Whitman, who he considered to be the greatest of American poets. Like Whitman’s ‘Song of Myself,’ ‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers’ uses what point of view?”

Student: “First.”

Lawrence: “First person, which means who is speaking?”

Students: “Langston Hughes.”

Lawrence: “Langston Hughes, the poet, is speaking. He uses first-person to express the experience and the identity of what?”

Student: “The entire community.”

Lawrence: “The entire community. Now, this is important. … Remember the story I told you about Harry Vernon, the old principal of Carver? Was that this class? All right, check it out. This is pretty cool. So we had a luncheon, a teacher luncheon. … I walk in – y’all know I’m in school (at the University of Georgia) to be a principal, right? – I walk in, and every living principal of Carver High School is eating at the table, and Mr. Lindsey is serving them their plates. And they look at me and say, ‘Hey, isn’t this your Teacher of the Year? This guy was just telling us you want to be a principal.’ And I’m like, ‘Wow. These old men know who I am.’ I go over to them, and the oldest one, the one who took over after Dr. Charleston, the first principal of Carver, he said, ‘What school are you going to?’ I said, ‘UGA, sir.’ Now, listen to this: He said he got turned down by UGA. Like 10 times he applied and got denied. Why do you think that is?”

Student: “Because he’s black.”

Lawrence: “UGA wasn’t integrated yet, right? So I’m thinking, ‘If I tried to get a girl’s number 10 times and 10 times she told me know, what do you think Coach Lawrence is doing?

Student: “Coach Lawrence is going to stop.”

Lawrence: “Yeah, I’m done.”

Student: “Move on to the next one.”

Lawrence: “On to the next one. I’m not going to get denied a million times. So I asked him, ‘Mr. Vernon, why did you keep applying and getting denied. It makes no sense to me.’ Do you know what this man told me? Listen to this. It’s crazy. He says, ‘I kept letting them tell me no so eventually they would tell you yes.’ And I’m sitting there like, ‘Wow!’ The guy never met me before, doesn’t know me from a can of paint, doesn’t know my parents – nobody, right? And he’s thinking about people who are going to come after him, right? … So 30, 40 years later, here I come, and get to go to UGA because people like him came before me, right? That is what we’re talking about with community. Community is important. It means you come together. Remember, ‘C-O-M-M’ communication. We’re coming together to get something done.”

Then he recalled the death Carver baseball coach David Pollard, who was killed when the driver of a stolen car ran a red light and crashed into him.

Lawrence: “Remember we talked about this when Coach Pollard died, right? Everything is a ripple effect: Some kid dropped out of school; some kid don’t have a job; some kid steals a car; some kid breaks the law; some kid ends up in a police chase; good man dies.”

Student: “It’s a cycle.”

Lawrence: “It’s all cyclical. Right, James. It’s a cycle. It comes back around. You can’t escape it. You can’t escape it. That’s why school is important. That’s why Coach Lawrence is a teacher, because this is it: It starts with y’all. … And you’ve got to do it as a community. You can’t separate yourself. ‘Oh, I’m just going to be over here in my bubble and not talk to anybody.’ That’s why I teach English, so y’all get social skills, so you can get out and talk to people, right? You have to. If you don’t, everybody suffers, including you. … Find any great leader. They’ll tell you, first and foremost, it’s community – family, community, right? … And to exclude yourself from it is to take yourself from humanity. So what is Langston Hughes’ primary concern is his poetry?”

Student: “Community.”

Lawrence: “The community. And the community at that time, how were blacks getting treated?”

Student: “Like dirt.”

Lawrence: “It’s poor. Poverty is running rampant. We talked about poverty being a universal theme. Remember way back at the beginning of the year? With poverty comes what?”

Student: “Violence.”

Lawrence: “Violence comes from being poor. What else?”

Student: “Depression.”

Lawrence: “Depression. And you get depression from what?”

Student: “Drugs.”

Lawrence: “Drugs and what?”

Student: “Alcohol.”

Lawrence: “Alcohol. Substance abuse comes with being poor. What else?”

Student: “You break the law.”

Lawrence: “Law breaking. Remember we talked about (rappers) Biggie and Jay Z? Remember the argument? ‘I didn’t want to sell drugs. I …’”

Student: “‘I had to do it.’”

Lawrence: “‘I had to do it to eat.’ And we argued all day long about that. Did Jay Z really have to sell dope to eat?”

Student: “No.”

Lawrence: “Did Biggie really have to sell drugs to put food in his daughter’s mouth?”

Student: “No.”

Lawrence: “Y’all are saying no. But the answer is not always crystal clear. My grandparents had to drop out of school to support their family. They had to. School or die. And when we strip everything down to the bare minimum, people always are going to look for their needs, right? You’re not going to put your wants over your needs, right? I don’t care how much you like Jordans. You’re not going to wear Jordans if it means you can’t eat, right? First things first. So we look at them and say, ‘Oh, she dropped out. She could have had every opportunity in the world. This is America.’ Does everybody in America have the same opportunity?”

Student: “No.”

Lawrence: “No. They don’t, right? So it sounds good. It does sound good, which is way Coach Lawrence gets so frustrated with y’all when y’all make bad decisions in school. … Do you know what it costs to educate you in taxpayer money? Per student, over or under $1,000?”

Student: “Over.”

Lawrence: “Over. So when a kid drops out of school, people are losing money, right? It takes money to keep these lights on, to keep the air pumping, to build this building, right. Forty-something million don’t come out of nowhere. So people are invested in you, and with that comes a great amount of responsibility, right? And this is the responsibility that Langston Hughes feels to the African-American community. … We cannot separate from the community. We are a community. The community is us. And Langston Hughes knows that. He’s concerned about the poor people in Harlem. Why?”

Student: “He’s a poor person.”

Lawrence: “Because he is a poor person from Harlem. Even when he got paid – he got himself a brownstone – guess where he stayed. He stayed in Harlem. He never left. So you can’t separate the two. Now, Coach Lawrence ain’t saying if you turn into (former Carver football star and current NFL player) Jarvis Jones and you become an instant millionaire that you’ve got to stay where you grew up. That ain’t what I’m saying. But Jarvis Jones, (another former Carver football star and current NFL player) Isaiah Crowell, these boys come back. They do stuff for the community.”

Student: “They don’t forget their roots.”

Lawrence: “Right. They don’t forget where they came from. You don’t see them like a lot of people. ‘Oh, where you from? Atlanta.’ Y’all know rappers be from Columbus, and then they say they from Atlanta because it makes them sound cooler? … And it’s important to Langston Hughes. All right, so we’re going to read this one poem, ‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers,’ and then I’m going to ask y’all a couple questions. Let’s see, let’s get Adrian. OK, Tiana raised her hand. Go ahead, Tiana.”

Tiana starts reading the poem softly.

Lawrence: “You’ve got to speak up, baby. This is Langston Hughes.”

Students laugh, including Tiana. She reads louder.

I’ve known rivers:

I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I’ve known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Lawrence: “All right. Love it. Now, questions. James?”

James: “Yes, sir.”

Lawrence: “What’s the tone of that poem?”

James: “It’s really calm, like he’s telling about his background.”

Lawrence: “Very calm, right? I like that. Let’s stick with calm. All right.”

He asks a girl whether she still is dating a certain boy. She says yes.

Lawrence: “Good. OK.”

Then he pretends to be her boyfriend.

Lawrence: “‘You know when you get little attitude of yours, you know, when your lips start poking? Girl, hey, you need to calm down!’”

As the student and her classmates enjoy their teacher’s skit, he pretends to be the girlfriend.

Lawrence: “‘You don’t never take me anywhere.’ And he says, ‘Well, I’m going to take you out.’ Y’all just had a fight, so it’s got to be somewhere nice, because he just messed up.”

Student: “I don’t know.”

Lawrence: “You better not say no McDonald’s. He messed up.”

Students suggest O’Charley’s and Smokey Bones.

Lawrence: “Let’s go with Smokey Bones. … How do they keep it in Smokey Bones, the lighting?”

Student: “Dim.”

Lawrence: “Dim, right? Dim calms us down. Let’s look at the words. Let’s look at why James is saying the tone of the poem is calm. Find me dim words.”

Student: “Lulled.”

Lawrence: “Lulled, like a what? If I lulled you to sleep, …”

Student: “A lullaby.”

Lawrence: “Like a lullaby. Think about basketball, Daniel, right? I’ve got my crossover. I’m setting it up. I’m trying to lull you to sleep. What am I doing? Slow rocking a little bit. Boom. Boom. That’s what I’m trying to do: get you to relax. Then I’m gone. Lullaby, right? We sing it to babies, right? Give me a another dim word.”

Student: “Sunset.”

Lawrence: “Sunset. Tiana, you and your imaginary boyfriend …”

Everyone laughs, including Tiana.

Lawrence: “Beach. Towels. You’re watching the sun go down. Santa Monica. You, bathing suit. Him, swimming trunks. Y’all are there. Sunset. It’s beautiful. Look at the picture. Beautiful words. What else?”

Student: “Dusky.”

Lawrence: “Dusky. Give me the definition of that.”

Student: “Shadowy.”

Lawrence: “Shadowy, right? So, dusky. Give me something else.”

Student: “Bosom.”

Lawrence: “Bosom, right? When you put a lullaby on a baby, you put her right there, right? And you’re rocking, right there in the bosom. There’s something about that, even when you’re grown. I’m not ashamed to share this with y’all: 24 years old, wait, 23; I’m living home for my first six months of work, right? My dad gave me six months to get six teaching checks behind me before, ‘Get out,’ right? I have an asthma attack. … Who comes running?”

Students: “Your mother.”

Lawrence: “My mother, freaking out. Every time. I’ve had asthma since I was born, but every time she freaks out. … I’m playing the PlayStation, right? High caffeine is good for asthma, right? So I’ve got a cup of coffee. I’ve got my little cubicle set up. I’m good. Like, you know, boom. (In a higher pitch, he pretends to be his mother and asks) ‘What’s wrong?’ ‘I just can’t go to sleep, Mama.’ She walks up and turns the game off. Boom. So now I’m mad at her because I didn’t get a chance to save. ‘Mama, go on.’ (He again pretends to be his mother and replies) ‘No, no, no. It’s OK. It’s OK. It’s all right.’”

He acts like a mother rocking her child against her bosom.

Lawrence: “Five minutes later …”

He makes a loud snoring sound and cracks up the class.

Lawrence: “23 years old. What is it about that, right? Holding you close, it’s just something. It’s just so calming. Mothers can still do that, right? … Bosom – that’s a good word, good word. Jesus describes Heaven as ‘the bosom of Abraham.’ What else? Give me another dim word.”

Student: “Singing.”

Lawrence: “Singing, which is incorporated in that lullaby, right? Who could Beyonce not put to sleep, right, with that beautiful, angelic voice? It can’t be Rihanna because you’re going to be trying to turn it up. So it’s got to be somebody like Jill Scott or somebody like Erykah Badu.”

Another teacher sticks his head through the doorway and Lawrence asks him, “Hey, you’re going on a date with a girl and you’re riding in the car, are you going to play Rihanna or Erykah Badu?”

Teacher: “Neither of the above. It depends on what kind of girl.”

Lawrence: “She’s classy.”

Teacher: “Something nice and slow, something old school … maybe Marvin Gaye.”

Lawrence: “Marvin Gaye. There it is. That’s it, right? Calm, just take your time with it. Y’all ever heard Marvin Gaye sing the National Anthem? … No? 1983 NBA All-Star Game, Marvin Gaye sings the National Anthem.”

Student: “I wasn’t born then.”

Lawrence: “It don’t matter.”

He asks someone to turn off the lights as he turns on his classroom’s SmartBoard and plays a video of Gaye’s performance.

Lawrence: “He turns the National Anthem into something else. Listen to this. Look at how many dim words you can apply to Marvin Gaye in this National Anthem.”

After playing Gaye’s slow, mellow version of the National Anthem, Lawrence says, “Most people, when they sing the National Anthem, it doesn’t take them 3 minutes.”

Lawrence: “Now, giving me a location in this poem. We’re talking about setting.”

Student: “Rivers.”

Lawrence: “Specific rivers.”

Student: “The Nile.”

Lawrence: “The Nile. Somebody tell me where that’s at.”

Student: “Africa.”

Lawrence: “Africa, and in particular?”

Student: “Egypt.”

Lawrence: “Egypt, right, and people call it the cradle of civilization, mathematics, science, engineering. Y’all know, to this day, the pyramids are still considered an absolute mathematical perfect structure? To think people did that with no protractors, no compasses, no computers, no nothing. … What else? Give me another river.”

Student: “Euphrates.”

Lawrence: “The Euphrates. Give me something else, a location.”

Student: “The Mississippi.”

Lawrence: “The Mississippi River. Now, we’re going to talk about this. We’re going to talk about symbolism. There’s a country mentioned.”

Student: “New Orleans.”

Lawrence: “I said a country, and you said New Orleans? … All right, the Congo, which is?”

Student: “Africa.”

Lawrence: “OK, let’s look at parallel structure here, right? He says, on Line 6, ‘I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans.’ Now, what is he saying here? This is next level stuff. Notice the parallel structure he draws, right? Egypt and pyramids, Abe Lincoln and the Mississippi River.”

Student: “Is it like that ‘Go Down Moses’ song?”

Lawrence: “Give me that. ‘Go Down Moses’ what?”

Student: “All right. Moses went to Egypt to tell Pharaoh to let his people go, and Abraham Lincoln went down the Mississippi to New Orleands.”

Lawrence: “Abraham Lincoln is our great emancipator. What’s the thing we remember him most for?”

Students: “Freedom.”

Lawrence: “Setting us free, OK? What is Moses’ job? He’s the great emancipator, right? What does that say?”

Student: “He’s looking at Abe like Moses?”

Lawrence: “He’s looking at Abe like he’s Moses, but we’re still what?”

Student: “Slaves.”

Lawrence: “Still slaves, right? Remember now, Langston Hughes was never a slave. Blacks are not slaves (then). So why in high school, at your age, would he write a poem insinuating that slavery is still here?”

Student: “He’s saying we’re still treated like slaves.”

Lawrence: “Especially at that time, right? Even though we were free, we’re still treated like slaves.”

Then he recites lyrics from “All Falls Down” by rapper Kanye West, leaving out a cuss word:

Drug dealer buy Jordans, crackhead buy crack

And a white man get paid off of all of that

But I ain't even gon act holier than thou

Cause (expletive) it, I went to Jacob with 25 thou

Before I had a house and I'd do it again

Cause I wanna be on 106 and Park pushing a Benz

I wanna act ballerific like it's all terrific

I got a couple past due bills, I won't get specific

I got a problem with spending before I get it

Lawrence: “Kanye West has his issues, but when you strip that brother down to the music, and the music only, he says some stuff you really need to hear. … That is a truth, right? That is a truth that you can’t get confused with the fact that we’re free and everything is done. If that was the case, what was Martin Luther King doing? We were free, right? And he was still asking for freedom. Freedom from what?”

Student: “Society.”

Lawrence: “Unequal treatment. Unequal society, right? So I don’t want to lose focus that this boy was y’all’s age when he was writing this. He’s sitting there in some classroom … He’s from Joplin, Missouri. He’s sitting there in the South, looking at his situation, and saying, ‘You know what? Technically I’m free, but this is some bull. This ain’t it.’ Now, let’s keep looking at some parallels here. How were we in Egypt? Let’s get away from the Bible story of Moses. How were Africans in Egypt?”

Student: “They were kings.”

Lawrence: “Kings! Kings. Gold everywhere. Y’all seen King Tut, his tomb, right?”

Student: “Iced up.”

Lawrence: “Iced up. I’m talking about 24-karat boxes, people, right? Michael Jackson coffins. All right? So with that, he’s drawing on that, right? … This is a high school kid saying this: ‘We don’t come from bums. We don’t come from poor people in Louisiana. That’s not where we come from. That’s who we are right now, but that’s not where we come from.’ So his notion is that we’ve got to get it back to that. Now, let’s look at the rivers. What is a river? Define it.”

Student: “A large body of water.”

Lawrence: “A large body of water. That sounds like a lake.”

Student: “A constant flow of water.”

Lawrence: “A large body of constantly flowing water. Lakes are disgusting. They just sit there. Deer come and pee in them. Lakes, they don’t move. They’re stagnant. They’re still, right? Lake Michigan has been the same Lake Michigan it’s always been. (The Disney movie) ‘Pocahontas’ had a good song about this, ‘Just Around the Riverbend.’ Have y’all seen ‘Pocahontas’?”

Student: “Yeah, you showed us.”

Lawrence: “That’s right. I did show y’all a cut from that when we were talking about John Smith. She had that verse that says she never crossed the same river twice.”

Then the students giggle as he sings a line from the song:

“The water’s always changing, always flowing.”

Lawrence: “No? Is it bad that I know that? I had every Disney masterpiece. I still have them. I would have been worth a lot of money if I never opened them. But I had to. ‘Robin Hood’ was the truth. ‘Jungle Book’ is my favorite. Have you seen the new ‘Jungle Book’? It’s so exciting. … But anyway, Pocahontas has got a point. Rivers are always moving, and because of that, they’re normally a cleaner source of water. You talk about the Nile and Euphrates rivers, empires were built around rivers. Why? Rivers provide cleanliness, rivers provide transportation, food. … Rivers are a vital source of life, right? Let’s go back to our color motifs. What color motif means life?”

Student: “Green.”

Student: “No, that’s money.”

Student: “Blue.”

Lawrence: “Blue. What’s blue?”

Students: “Water.”

Lawrence: “What does everything on this planet need to live?”

Students: “Water.”

Lawrence: “Water, right? So Langston Hughes is noticing the difference and the dichotomy that exists between the kings of Egypt and their river and the poor blacks of Louisiana and their river. What do you think he’s trying to say?”

Daniel: “Black people were kings in Egypt. So why can’t black people be kings in America?”

Lawrence: “Daniel is on it today, y’all. Did y’all get that? Black people in Egypt had this powerful river, and they were kings, and they thrived. Black people in Louisiana have a powerful river too, and they’re not thriving. Why is that?”

Daniel: “Because we were shorted on our education. We were negative on what we could know.”

Lawrence: “That sounds real familiar. … I’m thinking about somebody on our board.”

Student: “Frederick Douglass.”

Lawrence: “What does Frederick Douglass say about slaves? Where does slavery exist?”

Student: “In the mind.”

Lawrence: “Keep the body of the slave, take the mind from him, and you will keep him forever. So what’s Langston trying to do, this 17-18-year-old Langston?”

Daniel: “To get them to realize what they have.”

Lawrence: “To get them to realize that it’s here (points to his head) where they are slaves. It’s not their destiny to be slaves. Here (points to his head) is where you are slaves. We’ve got rivers. We’ve got everything we need to be kings, except this (points to his head). All right? And this (points to his head) is what Coach Lawrence wants you to keep, right? This (points to his head) is what Coach Lawrence wants you to realize you have, the same thing Langston Hughes did. Y’all know how frustrating it is to be a teacher like me here to hear some of the conversations y’all have? To hear how much y’all sell yourselves short? To know that I’ve got AP classes that are sometimes empty when I’ve got kids who could be in them if y’all only took that type of stuff serious.”

He pauses to let that message sink in, then continues.

Lawrence: “Y’all are capable of so much. You don’t know it, though. That’s the frustrating part. You say stuff like, ‘Oh, he got that award because he’s smart.’ But you’re smart. He might work harder than you, but you’re every bit as intelligent as this guy is or as this girl is. ‘Oh, she’s got a 4.0. She’s a brainiac. She was just born that way.’ OK, great. Some people are born naturally smarter than others. But you can’t tell me that you put your best foot forward all the time and this person is way up here and you’re way down here. I don’t believe that about a person in here. What separates them is effort, right? You’ve got to realize this, y’all. There’s coming a time – we’re at the end of this (school) year; y’all are going to be seniors in high school. You’ve got one year, and it’s time to see who’s all foam and no beer. … But the world is going to seek you out. The world is undefeated. It’s going to see who’s about it and who’s not, right? And you can’t, you cannot, have this Louisiana poor black slave mindset. ‘Woe is me. I’m from the inner city. No one loves me. I got a tough break in life. Blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah.’ So what? So what? You’ve got a river too. You’ve got a river too. You can be a king too, right? … Who’s seen the Mississippi River?”

Two students raise their hand. Both say they went to Biloxi, Miss.

Lawrence: “I was in New Orleans when I saw the Mississippi. It’s a massive river, and the land around the Mississippi is so rich. Y’all heard of the Mississippi Valley Delta? Some of the richest soil on the planet. But when we think about the Nile, we think about exotic – camels, sand, oases, pyramids, gold, kings, dope stuff, Bible references. And when we think about the Mississippi, you know, riverboats. But it’s the same thing. And that’s Langston Hughes’ point, right? Just like blacks carved their way out of nothing in Egypt, we can carve our way out of nothing here. You’ve just got to realize that you are a king, and that’s why he picks that river. Every single one of you has king in you, right? Royalty, right? Do you know that? Has anybody ever told you that you were royalty?”

Student: “Yeah.”

Lawrence: “Who told you that you were royalty?”

Student: “My mama.”

Lawrence: “Good.”

Student: “My grandmother used to say it all the time. I didn’t think nothing of it, though.”

Lawrence: “That’s all of us. That’s all of us, right? Remember Langston Hughes’ biggest literary influence was Walt Whitman. Remember what Walt Whitman said. We’re all trying to reach the what?”

Student: “The top.”

Lawrence: “That massive ball of energy in space, that everybody is connected to. The over-…?”

Student: “The over-soul.”

Lawrence: “The over-soul. Remember? Transcendentalists are trying to access the over-soul. We’re all connected. Everybody’s got genius in them. It’s who activates their genius that separates people. Jay Z said that everybody’s got a little genius in them. It’s about who’s got the stones. Who’s got the stones to activate it? Remember now what Emerson said about self-reliance. ‘God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.’ You can’t be no punk and reach your genius state, right? It requires a little bit of bravery, dedication …”

Student: “Courage.”

Lawrence: “Hard work. It requires these things. If you don’t have these things, you’re going to be one of these people that’s in the crowd saying, ‘Oh, man, he’s great, awesome,’ and it’s not you. But you don’t have to, right. Emerson, Whitman, Langston Hughes, Jay Z have all acknowledged everybody has a genius particle in them, right? Maybe Jay Z had to drop out of school to activate his particle. We’ll never know. Does anybody doubt that Jay Z could have graduated from high school?”

Student: “No.”

Lawrence: “Clearly. Are we doubting that Jay Z could get a college degree.”

Student: “No, not with the stuff he’s doing.”

Lawrence: “He makes brilliant business decisions. … So maybe his journey required that. Notice that Jay Z has never supported that decision to drop out of high school, because maybe Jay Z is the one in 3 million. Those are horrible odds, horrible odds. So what are you going to do? Stay in school. Keep working. All right. And then there comes the time when you’ll get to roll the dice, maybe step out and be your own boss, or maybe change your job, or maybe change your college decision. But school is it, y’all. School is it. What did Frederick Douglass say? Knowledge forever makes a man unfit to be what? Y’all remember this? When did Frederick Douglass say he was truly free? When he beat up his slave master?”

Students: “No.”

Lawrence: “When did he say he was free?”

Student: “Was it when he showed that he could read and write?”

Lawrence: “When he could read and write. Frederick Douglass was no small man. We talked about this, right. Frederick Douglass had a little size on him. He beat up his slave master, and he said he realized he still was a slave because he couldn’t read and write. He had to learn that, right? Self-taught. He had to learn that. … Imagine the dedication it takes for a 17-18-year-old to teach himself how to read. Imagine that. You’re 17-18-year-olds. Y’all have had teachers your whole life. Self-taught to read and write. We read the autobiography of Frederick Douglass. Does that sound like somebody who was self-taught?”

Student: “No.”

Lawrence: “Imagine the dedication that required. Think about Benjamin Franklin, born broke, parents broke as a joke, teaching himself six languages. Six! Imagine what that required. Y’all remember we looked at Benjamin Franklin’s everyday routine? He went to bed at 1 in the morning, and he woke up at 5 in the morning every day. Why?”

Student: “You have to give up stuff to get where you want to go.”

Lawrence: “And he decided to give up what?”

Students: “Sleep.”

Lawrence: “Sleep. You’ll notice that among successful people, especially people who had to make their own wealth. They don’t sleep a lot. I saw all kinds of quotes from Beyonce, her ‘Lemonade’ tour. Y’all know she’s an amazing performer, amazing. You can tell she doesn’t sleep a lot. She can’t. All those different numbers. She’s got different choreography for every single one, right? You can tell the difference between a Beyonce show and Nicki Minaj show. Yeah, Nicki’s great, but she’s not Beyonce, because Beyonce puts on a …”

Student: “A show.”

Lawrence: “A show. Michael Jackson used to be the same way. Prince. James Brown. Y’all seen ‘Get On Up’?

Student: “The James Brown movie?”

Lawrence: “Yeah, the James Brown film. The hardest working man in show business. They weren’t lying. James Brown would do two shows in two cities in two hours. … I mean, people don’t sleep when you’re trying to make your own way. … These are the things that are required of you if, if – and this is only if – you want to activate the God in you, the genius in you, the royalty in you, the greatness in you. … They don’t give out college degrees, people. They don’t. They don’t. I have two of them. Trust me. They don’t give them out. If they did give them out, everybody would have one, and you wouldn’t be special, right? They don’t give them out. It requires work, y’all. Some of you are so lazy, y’all, I feel like you’re going to be laying on your side in your casket at your funeral, you’re so lazy.”

Students laugh.

Lawrence: “It don’t make no sense. It doesn’t. Y’all, it don’t have to be that way. And we’re coming to a close, y’all. … Y’all are going to stopping by my room, and I’m going to be telling y’all I miss you. This is next year, next year. I’m going to be telling y’all good luck, right? I’m going to be telling y’all I’m proud of you. Then it’s going to be ain’t no more Coach Lawrence getting on your nerves. It ain’t going to be no more Coach Lawrence having to correct you for letting a cuss word slip. It ain’t going to be no more Coach Lawrence telling you to get to class on time, go get a pass. … You’re going to come to somebody’s job late.”

Student: “And you’re gone.”

Lawrence: “Ain’t going to be no pass to get. It’s going to be a pink slip you’ll pick up. That’s not a check. It means you got fired.”

Students laugh.

Lawrence: “So, y’all, the day is coming. The day is coming. Some of y’all, I can’t wait for to grow up. I really can’t. I think some of y’all are just going to do amazing stuff. I think all of you are going to do amazing. Some of y’all make me worry, though. You’ve got Coach antsy. I’m not going to lie to you. I’m nervous. I’m nervous. All right? … I see the potential prince and princesses in all of you. All I want you to do is activate. That’s all Mr. Vernon wanted me to do. That’s why he kept making UGA tell him no, so I could activate my king in me. Langston Hughes wrote this poem so people could activate the God in them, the genius in them. You should be working hard so you can activate the genius in somebody else, aka the children that y’all will eventually have. You’re going to have to explain to your child, ‘Your mama could have had a better job, but she decided she wanted to goof off in high school.’ You’re going to have to have that conversation with your child when your child is acting up, when your child fails a class. ‘Well, you failed classes.’ My son can never tell me that. … Y’all are adults. The guy who killed Coach Pollard was just 2 years older than y’all. And he was here. He was here. Jesus, he was here. The kid that shot that dude in the mall, he’s y’all’s age. These are permanent decisions at y’all’s age. Y’all aren’t that far removed from them. You can be one of them at 18 or 19, or you can be this guy (Langston Hughes) at 18 or 19, influencing people. You’ve got that power. You do know that, right? Especially in an age where social media dominates everything. … Social media plugs y’all into everything instantly. Now, if Coach Lawrence was your friend on Facebook, would he be proud of what he sees? You don’t got to answer it. For some of y’all, the answer might be yeah. Some of y’all might have some questionable stuff. … Activate, activate, activate the king, the queen in you. You can do it. Everything you need to do it is here, and it’s free. Your Nile River, your Mississippi River is Carver High School. It can be done. You can build your empire around this river. You’ve just got to realize that is a river and there is an empire to be built. All right? You’ve got to know that. … Remember the scene in Frederick Douglass’ autobiography with the slaves arguing over whose master was better? They got in a fistfight over whose master has the bigger house. Remember that? And Frederick Douglass is sitting back like, ‘They don’t even realize that they’re both slaves.’ … Who gets owned the best? … Don’t be a slave. Don’t be one of these blacks that doesn’t get it. Realize that you’re sitting in the empire that you can potentially build. Coach Lawrence is working on his now. I realized my river, Hardaway, Northside. I realized growing up, ‘You know what? I could do stuff.’ Y’all can realize that too. You can do it. You’re not too young to do it. … Why not now? Huh? Why not now, today, activate the king in you or the queen in you. Why not now? You still want to be kids? You still want to play? Y’all think Coach Lawrence is allergic to playing? Do you? You think Coach Lawrence don’t like to have fun? I still have fun. You don’t have to sacrifice fun to be a king. You don’t.

Student: “I see President Obama do it.”

Lawrence: “President Obama has a blast. Lebron James has a blast. It’s true. … You don’t have to sacrifice fun to be a king. You don’t have to be so serious. Y’all think (principal) Mr. Lindsey don’t have fun too, don’t you? Man, Mr. Lindsey is hilarious. I’m going to tell y’all that now. Mr. Lindsey is hilarious, hilarious. … Remember Mr. Lindsey with the NWA lyrics at the PBIS pep rally? People get to have fun. You can have fun. But you’ve got to understand there’s a job to do too. Y’all want to have fun and get the grades without the work. You can’t do that. I can call any teacher I ever had, and they’ll tell you Lawrence was the class clown. I was funny for real. I had teachers laughing. Never got in trouble, though. Why? Because I knew what to do. Ms. Stanley knew in the third grade, if I cracked a joke, it was time for me to get some more work. … Ms. Stanley was there when I got my award last night. … I owe Ms. Stanley a lot. Ms. Stanley told me she owes me a lot. That’s crazy. … My old elementary school principal, Mrs. Pendleton was there. So what are we saying, coming back to this. Why did Langston Hughes write poetry?”

Student: “For the community.”

Lawrence: “For the community. All right. I want y’all to mail me letters. … I want college graduation announcements from y’all, military graduation announcements, right? I want you to come up here with your husband or your wife and be like, ‘Coach, this is my kid.’ I want to be the principal of some of y’all’s kids. … I’m tired of seeing y’all in front of the joint when I get gas. It’s getting old. Six years of it. I really am. It’s getting old. All right? So what is this poem about? Rivers. Rivers always move, whether you want them to or not. That sounds a lot like what?”

Student: “The world.”

Lawrence: “The world and what?”

Student: “Time.”

Lawrence: “Time. Good. I can tell you everything that happened to me at Fort Middle School. … I will be 30 next year, people. I’m mad about it. I’m officially old.”

Students laugh.

This story was originally published July 20, 2016 at 6:10 PM with the headline "Top 5 techniques of an excellent teacher."