‘I feel like teaching is the best way I can give back’

He had faced mortal danger during six overseas deployments in 15 years with the U.S. Air Force, but this rookie teacher still was scared the first day he faced the 20 kindergartners in his classroom one year ago.

Thomas S. Stone Elementary School of Mount Rainier, Md., has a poverty rate of 97 percent and serves predominantly Hispanic and impoverished students in Prince George’s County, adjacent to Washington — just 6 miles from the White House but a world away from privilege.

Only six of his students had attended preschool, and only four of them could speak functional English.

“Nothing that I’ve ever done in life prepared me for that one moment in time,” said Pocco Bussey, 37, a Columbus native and 1997 graduate of Kendrick High School.

But thanks to the training he received from the Teach for America program, the support he received from his fiancée and colleagues — as well as a bilingual 5-year-old girl — Bussey ended the school year with his students achieving an average of one year’s growth in reading and 82 percent mastery in math.

“I am rewarded daily when I see the excitement in the eyes of my students when they learn a new word or learn to write their name,” he said.

Career path

After he graduated high school, Bussey studied computer science at Columbus Technical College and worked at Aflac for a few years before deciding to join the Air Force. “I just wanted to venture out and explore life and maximize my potential,” he said.

Bussey earned an associate degree in allied health science from the Community College of the Air Force and a bachelor’s degree in health care management from Trident University International while serving as a medical technician in the Air Force. He left the military as a staff sergeant in 2014 because of downsizing.

“I was in a very small career field, which made it harder for me to promote,” he said.

Bussey worked for a while as a mail carrier in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., where he was last stationed with the Air Force. He wanted to find another way to serve his country — but on a more personal level — so he researched teaching opportunities and learned about Teach for America.

“I’ve always flirted with the idea of being an educator,” he said, “and what better way to give back to the community other than ensuring firsthand that the youth of America are receiving a quality education? I believe in Teach for America’s mission of closing the educational equity gap. Ultimately, I wanted to do my part in solving a very serious nationwide problem.”

Teach for America, a member of the AmeriCorps national service network, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding educational opportunity for students in low-income communities. Members of the Teach for America corps commit to teach for two years in high-need urban or rural public schools.

Founded in 1990, an estimated 50,000 teachers have gone through the Teach for America program. Bussey was one of approximately 8,500 teachers in the two-year program this past school year. TFA boasts that more founders and leaders of entrepreneurial education organizations started their careers in the program than any other organization.

Selection process

To qualify for Teach for America, candidates must have a bachelor’s degree and a 2.5 grade-point average and be U.S. citizens or legal residents in other approved ways. Applicants may request the content area, grade level and region in which they would like to teach. After a telephone interview and background check, selected applicants go through an in-person interview, conduct a five-minute lesson and participate in a group activity to whittle the field further.

Teach for America accepted 15 percent of its applicants last year, said Elora Tocci, Teach for America’s communications director.

In addition to another week of training, because he didn’t have a teaching degree, Bussey also attended one of Teach for America’s regional summer schools, where he taught rising kindergartners for seven weeks in Camden, N.J., to obtain his provisional certification. After another two weeks of orientation, TFA teachers start the academic year as paid employees of their assigned school district.

About two-thirds of TFA teachers are recent college graduates, and the other third are career changers such as Bussey, Tocci said.

“It’s encouraging and inspiring to see people with such a diversity of experience compelled to bring their leadership to TFA,” she said.

First day of class

Teach for America gave Bussey his first choices: the Washington region, to be near his fiancée and kindergarten because “I wanted students with a blank slate,” he said. “I didn’t want to have to correct problems from, I hate to say it, bad teachers. So I could instill the values of education and academics they need.”

Bussey believed TFA prepared him for that first day of school. But after all the other adults left his classroom, he was alone with those kindergartners — and four-fifths of them couldn’t understand him.

“I stood there frozen like a deer in the headlights,” he said, and he thought, “I’m going to fail horribly.”

He started with, “My name is Mr. Bussey, and I’m going to be your teacher this year.” He went around the room, asking for their names and what they like to do, and he received mostly blank stares in response.

Then one of his students, an outgoing bilingual girl named Layah, became his 5-year-old savior. Bussey promptly deputized her as his interpreter. She repeated his instructions in Spanish so all the students could understand.

“It’s amazing how fast they picked up English,” he said, “speaking in full sentences, having conversations.”

In fact, near the end of the school year, Bussey conducted a spelling bee for his class, and the winner was a previously mum Hispanic student who couldn’t spell his name at the beginning of the year.

“I’m still riding on that high,” he said with a laugh.

At times, Bussey felt overwhelmed by all that he had to do as a kindergarten teacher at this school.

“It was a very rude awakening for me,” he said. “I was unaware that kindergartners were expected to learn addition/subtraction, algebra, reading and writing full sentences in addition to other subjects such as science, social studies, health and specials (art, music and physical education). Instruction begins at 8 a.m., and dismissal is at 1:55. That is an extremely short amount of time to accomplish everything that is expected of me.”

But the first-quarter assessments showed Bussey he already was on track.

“I was proud to have taught students that didn’t speak any English how to read within a span of three months,” he said. “I was proud of the hard work they put forth every day.”

Positive influence

Patricia Crosson, assistant principal at Thomas S. Stone Elementary School, called the impact Bussey made on the students in his classroom “phenomenal.”

“He was able to meet them where they were and move them at a positive rate of growth,” she said, adding that his bulletin boards were “wonderful.”

Kati Vaughn, manager of teacher leadership development at Teach for America, was the TFA official who visited Bussey’s classroom monthly to evaluate his teaching.

“From day one, Pocco’s classroom was joyful and student-centered, with an urgent focus on learning,” she said. “Pocco easily connected with his students and it quickly became obvious to me that they adored him.”

Bussey continued that momentum and produced remarkable results.

“By the end of the year, Pocco’s classroom exceeded our classroom culture goal for first-year teachers,” Vaughn said. “His students knew and could articulate their classroom goals. They were working to develop a strong sense of self, including a positive racial and cultural identity.”

And he did it, Vaughn said, with a “huge grin on his face” and by “consistently infusing open-ended questioning and child-led learning into his instruction as a means to increase rigor and improve comprehension.”

Bussey explained his teaching philosophy begins with trying to make his students as comfortable as possible.

“I like for my students to explore their environment and to learn about their community and how to make it better by making themselves better,” he said.

Bussey wears a tie each school day to present a professional image, but he still shows his playful side by joining his students’ games at recess. Teaching is tiring, he realized. “I was on my feet all day,” he said. “It takes a toll.”

He was gratified to see some of his students imitate him by wearing ties to school and proclaiming, “I look like Mr. Bussey!”

“It’s very important at this age that they are happy about education,” he said. “I would have failed if I had a class full of students crying and wanting to go home.”

He divided the students into small groups to allow them to get up and collaborate on math problems or reading assignments while he played music from YouTube to fit the mood. To help them understand the planets, they made a papier-mâché model of the solar system.

“They’re going to move around and test the boundaries,” he said. “I wanted to allow them that space and to bring themselves back in, to self-regulate.”

Bussey sent a monthly newsletter to his students’ parents, noting activities they could do at home with their children to enhance their learning.

Overcoming the odds

While these students attained such academic achievement by overcoming disadvantaged backgrounds, Bussey persevered through some tough times as well.

The most discouraging was the day when one of his students came to school with a black eye and bruise on the side of her face.

“She told me her grandmother hit her for sitting on the dog’s blanket,” he said. “It broke my heart and angered me.”

Bussey reported the incident to the school counselor, but “the investigation yielded nothing,” he said. “Her mother was later deported, and she was dis-enrolled from the school.”

And his solo childcare duties weren’t done when he returned home from school. He was responsible for his 4-year-old son while his fiancée, former WNBA player Madinah Slaise, who is now a captain in the Air Force, was out of town for nearly two months of training.

“It was very stressful,” he said, “because she was the glue that held everything together.”

Being a black male kindergarten teacher with all of his students Hispanic or African American and most of them from single-parent homes, Bussey is acutely aware of the power of his position.

“I feel like I can make an impact and be a leader in the classroom and just in life,” he said. “I want to help, and I feel like teaching is the best way I can give back.”

His assistant principal confirms Bussey has done exactly that.

“Having a male and especially a black male with the work ethic and level of consistency as Mr. Bussey has been so relevant to our school community,” said Crosson, who doesn’t remember another black male kindergarten teacher in her 24 years as an educator.

Only 2 percent of the nation’s teachers are black men, said Tocci, the Teach for America communications director.

“While teachers of all backgrounds can have a deep impact on a child’s life, teachers of color have the opportunity to make a profound additional impact on their students of color,” she said. “It’s extraordinarily difficult for kids to be what they cannot see, and when a black student has the opportunity to learn from a teacher who looks like him or her, that student can start to envision a future where she, too, can be a teacher and leader in the community.”

Despite his successful first year, Bussey laments the struggles too many students must go through because of the lack of support at home.

“I’ve learned that parent involvement is the key to not only a child’s educational success, but also their success in life in general,” he said. “The security of our nation starts in each individual citizen’s home. Parents need to be accountable for their children. Children are being sent to school with no foundational skills, and I’m assuming the parents are expecting these skills to be taught during the school day, which is impossible with the demands of the current school curriculum.”

Looking forward

At the end of his two-year Teach for America commitment, Bussey will have his official certification, as long as he completes three additional courses and passes the exam.

Bussey’s dream job would be working as an analyst to develop education policy that will address some of the problems he has seen in his classroom. But first, he looks forward to welcoming new students when his school begins the 2016-17 academic year Aug. 23.

“I am looking forward to adding more technology in my classroom,” said Bussey, who is pursuing a master’s degree in education through online courses with Johns Hopkins University. “I am also looking forward to implementing process improvement techniques that I learned while attending workshops during this summer. I’m mostly looking forward to making a difference in the lives of my students and giving them an unforgettable kindergarten experience that will make them fall in love with school.”

All of which allows him to recommend Teach for America without reservation.

“It’s been the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” he said. “The amount of support, the opportunities, just the camaraderie, professionalism. I mean, it’s just an amazing organization.”

But he wouldn’t recommend the program to “people who aren’t motivated to inspire students or who don’t like children and being in a classroom and who don’t like diversity.”

Slaise, his fiancée, added with a smile, “Or people who want to get rich.”

Or folks who want a 9-to-5 job.

“Even outside of school,” he said, “the wheels are always turning in my mind, thinking how I can make my classroom better.”

This story was originally published August 7, 2016 at 3:37 PM with the headline "‘I feel like teaching is the best way I can give back’."