Lisa Lee: Getting at the Heart of Teaching at TEDxCrestmoorParkED (Transcript)

Lisa Lee

Here is the full transcript of former DeKalb teacher Lisa Lee’s TEDx Talk: Getting at the Heart of Teaching at TEDxCrestmoorParkED conference.

Lisa Lee – former DeKalb teacher

Are you ready to get started? Yes, we are. Don’t need to do that again.

I’ve been teaching for over 26 years. Long enough to have moved from, “Ms. Lee, you’re like my favorite auntie” to “Ms. Lee, you’re my second mom.” Then it became, “Ms. Lee, you’re like my grandma.” I didn’t mind so much, because I already played one in real life, right?

Well recently, you know where this is going, I met the family of one of my new students. The next day, she came in – I love Photoshop, this picture – She came in and said, “You know, my parents said you remind them of my great-grandmother.” So, after I picked myself up off the floor, I said, “Um, why?” And she said, “Well, she lives in Louisiana.” I’m like, I’m from Georgia, I get that. “And she plays tennis.” I’m obviously in great shape, so, I get that. “She’s really funny.” Not as funny as me, but OK I’ll go with that. “And she lives on a gator farm.” I suddenly realized I can relate to that too, because I teach middle school.

Yes, for the last 11 years I’ve been a teacher of what I call, lovingly, hormones with legs. And I taught, before that, elementary school for many years and never planned on my shadow darkening the doorway of a middle school classroom.