Principles From Our Principals

This week's heartfelt tribute to our educational leaders during Virginia School Principals Week takes you behind the scenes with two of Chesapeake Public Schools' finest, Mr. Paul Joseph and Dr. Michelle Ferebee. Uncover Paul's unexpected journey from an alternative school to his dream role at Oscar Smith High School, and trace Michelle's steps from a student in the corridors of Indian River High School to her influential position at Deep Creek Elementary School. As we honor their stories, you'll find inspiration in the unyielding commitment and passion they infuse into their roles, enriching the lives of students and setting a standard for educational leadership.

#VASchoolPrincipalsWeek
#ThanksCPSPrincipals

Chapters

• 0:00 Highlighting Chesapeake Public School Principals' Journey
• 13:16 Changes in Education and Balancing Technology
• 19:48 Building Bridges

Transcript

Matt Graham: 0:00

Welcome to Amplified the Chesapeake Public Schools podcast.

Richie Babb: 0:13

Chesapeake Schools is located in the Hampton Roads area of southeastern Virginia. We serve 40,000 students in 45 schools and three centers. This podcast is designed to tell the stories behind our story and to introduce and celebrate the people and programs that make us one of the premier school districts in Virginia.

Matt Graham: 0:32

Alright, welcome back. Here we are another new episode on Amplified, the Chesapeake Public Schools podcast. This is Matt Graham here with Richie Bab, and this is our January segment. Yeah, new year, new episode. That's right. Do you have a good break?

Richie Babb: 0:46

I did, I did. How about yourself? I know you were busy, right?

Matt Graham: 0:49

Oh yeah, I mean, I guess everybody's busy, Everybody is.

Richie Babb: 0:52

But is that?

Matt Graham: 0:53

time to have new beginnings, like a nice little reset.

Richie Babb: 0:57

Right.

Matt Graham: 0:57

Yep, I hear you like the cold.

Richie Babb: 0:59

No, not really. I don't need to wear that many clothes at one time.

Matt Graham: 1:05

So you're anxiously waiting for summer.

Richie Babb: 1:07

Yeah, eagerly I would say, as opposed to anxiously yeah, I am.

Matt Graham: 1:11

Alright well, one thing that we are excited to highlight during this month is there is a week set aside for our principals. January 14th through the 20th is Virginia School Principal's Appreciation Week. Man, that's a mouthful.

Richie Babb: 1:26

It is. That's a lot of words. It's a lot of words, it is.

Matt Graham: 1:29

But we had the opportunity to speak with two incredible principals that we have here. I mean, we have a ton of them to stop by and we chatted and it was a great conversation. We heard a little bit about their backstory, things that they're excited about.

Richie Babb: 1:44

Yeah, it's great. Talk about getting to know people and getting the stories behind the story. This episode's great for that Right.

Matt Graham: 1:50

So sit back and enjoy With us. Today we have two amazing principals. We have Mr Paul Joseph from Oscar Smith High School and we have Dr Michelle Furby from Deep Creek Elementary School. One thing that we always do is we try to find out a little bit about you, or let our community know a little bit about you. Do you mind telling us about your background or even positions that you held? Mr Joseph, let's go ahead and start with you.

Paul Joseph: 2:20

Well, I came to Chesapeake in 1980. I graduated college from Virginia Westland and Sissy Chapel, was a social studies supervisor. And the third day of school had come and gone and a teacher from the alternative school called in from Florida and said I quit. So they had it was a Friday afternoon, so I went in with nine other people to interview for the job. I had a delightful job at the time, cleaning out stables, you know so I said I think I'll go there.

Paul Joseph: 2:45

Delightful, I don't think, is the word I use for that, but but I had to run home, didn't even have time to shower, so as the old spray some clone on ran back up here, it came into this building actually and, you know, did some lesson plans for talk weather.

Paul Joseph: 2:58

And next thing I know, I went to the alternative school on Monday morning and I didn't know anything about an alternative school. I drove by it out the the old Nike missile site, drove by it a few times and stopped in because it seemed like the only landmark and I said, no, this is the school, like really. So that's where I was. But I taught there for five years and during the course of that time I had the opportunity to meet Glenn Coons, who was an assistant principal there. I was coaching at Portsmouth Catholic High School at the time and we scrimmaged against Glenn's team and when he was going to get promoted from being a coach to assistant principal he said, hey, would you consider going to Deep Creek to take my job, my old job there as a coach? So I went over there and met Mr Hardy. He was an amazing guy.

Paul Joseph: 3:40

So, coach there, and then they you know, I'd coach boys basketball at Catholic and then over there they said well, we don't have boys, we've got girls. Would you do that? Like, whatever, I'll do it.

Paul Joseph: 3:49

So, I was there five years and then I went to Indian River High, taught social studies coach, soccer coach, girls basketball there, eventually became department chair for social studies. I wanted to move into administration so I left. I had a good opportunity from Glenn Coons again, who was principal of Oscar Smith, brought me over as assistant principal in 93 and was there for seven years and then transferred to Western Verge High School, was assistant principal for three years and then was named principal of Crestwood Middle, was there and then finally got. Really was my dream to go back to Oscar Smith High as the principal. So I've been there. I think this is 17 years.

Richie Babb: 4:25

Wow, so you are living the dream then.

Paul Joseph: 4:27

Well, I can hold a job anyway, that's good. Sorry to say that. Yes, from this table, yeah, but I can hold it yeah.

Richie Babb: 4:34

How about you, Michelle?

Michelle Ferebee: 4:35

Oh, story's long. So our paths crossed at Indian River. So I was a student at Indian River High School and I graduated from Indian River, went to TCC, then ODU and early commitment. So, Miss, who was it that got me Hold on Miss Luthor?

Richie Babb: 4:54

Okay, yeah.

Michelle Ferebee: 4:55

She did the interviews at ODU. So I accepted that early commitment under Dr Bateman and I came into. I actually interviewed at Crestwood Middle, Great Bridge, Middle, and then by the third interview I was like I'm just gonna be Michelle and I went to cover and I'm a head gone there as a child, and so it was Raymond Hopkins and Nancy Brown.

Michelle Ferebee: 5:18

And I just started cutting up during the interview. I was like whatever, you know what, this gotta be it. And so Nancy Brown told me that Mr Hopkins said are you sure about her? Because she turned into a Jamaican and started talking with her. So anyway I did. I worked there for two years. Middle school concept came. I went to Oscar Smith Middle as a sixth grade English teacher and then from there became a instructional specialist with Dan Mulligan and then from there went to Indian River Middle School as an instructional coach under Dr Scott.

Michelle Ferebee: 5:55

And then from Indian River, naomi took over Naomi Dunbar. She became the principal, moved over to Indian River High School as an administrative assistant under Mr Fry and from Mr Fry I went back to Oscar Smith Middle because our program got cut. So the administrative assistant, yeah, the funding got cut. So I went back into the classroom at Oscar Smith Middle School for a year and a half under Dr Scott.

Michelle Ferebee: 6:21

And from there, went to Western Branch High School with Mr Sykes and Hickory High School with Frida Turner and stayed there for a year and ended up at GW Carver, south Norfolk. That's when I met up with Mr Joseph again, and then it was a nice reunion.

Paul Joseph: 6:37

He was a nice reunion.

Michelle Ferebee: 6:40

Oh he's such a hero of mine, and then I went to Deep Creek Elementary. That's where I am right now proud principal of DC.

Richie Babb: 6:46

There you go. Now you know it's interesting. In both of your stories you've referenced people who were mentors and who you worked with. It's interesting that that's what would come out, because it really does make a difference. I mean, it really is important to have mentors, especially going into a school administration. What made you guys choose education as a field to go into? You wanna go first?

Michelle Ferebee: 7:14

Okay, I'll go first, because you went first. It was gonna be short, so it was between acting and educating, so-.

Richie Babb: 7:23

So you get to do both.

Michelle Ferebee: 7:24

I do, it was the obvious choice. It was like what better stage than a classroom where?

Paul Joseph: 7:29

you can turn into somebody totally different.

Michelle Ferebee: 7:32

Engage your kids and have them experience some of those joys of public speaking and acting out, role playing, dramatizations, reading, writing, so all of those things you know. They say all the worlds are staged, but I think the classrooms one of the greatest stages a teacher can have, so I chose that one. Mr Shirley, I'm sorry, I went in a different path.

Richie Babb: 7:53

Linda Larmine led me this way. How about you, Paul?

Paul Joseph: 7:59

A little different path. I went to college. My mother said you can be a doctor or lawyer, or dentist. So she had three choices. So I was pre-dental and I was doing okay. But my chemistry professor saw that you know, you don't really seem like you're into this and he had a good heart, you know.

Paul Joseph: 8:13

He says well what do you really like? And I said, well, I really like. I like political science and history. I've taken some of those courses. I like geography. He says, well, why don't you go into that? So I did and I remember talking to my mother about it and be honest with you. She was upset with me. She said you should be one of those things she goes anybody teacher. I said, no, no, mom, I want to be a really good teacher. I mean, we're really effective. So that was one of those things. My mom's a great support system. But she just had other dreams about what great.

Richie Babb: 8:39

Now she's just so proud you know, so I got that, but you know you said something before about mentors.

Paul Joseph: 8:44

I can't tell you how many people have been great to me.

Michelle Ferebee: 8:46

I'm not agree.

Paul Joseph: 8:47

Carol Fleming took me aside one day and had observed me and I had a less than stellar lesson, but she knew I had more in me. So she says I'm not going to write this up. You come back Monday and do it again. And I did. I don't ever go below that level again, cause I asked her how did I do she?

Michelle Ferebee: 9:01

goes. You know he did. That's how you should do it.

Paul Joseph: 9:04

And so I was mad, but then I realized there's a lesson there. So it was good and you talked about some folks Jimmy Fry, you know, art Brandriff, you know. Janne and Draco Glankoos.

Richie Babb: 9:14

Just amazing people.

Paul Joseph: 9:15

And then other people, like Robert Shirley, I mean people who are just so influential.

Richie Babb: 9:19

Linda Scott is another. Oh gosh, yeah.

Paul Joseph: 9:22

I admired her so much. She's like I don't know how she does this, cause she was 24, seven.

Michelle Ferebee: 9:28

I mean always that way.

Paul Joseph: 9:29

Yeah, in fact she I'd tell her one time she got sick and like you need to slow down a little bit.

Richie Babb: 9:33

You know, but she was so dedicated. She absolutely yeah, she was. I mean, talk about the energizer bunny. Yeah, you know, but yeah, people like her and Ed Hughes was a mentor of mine, you know Harry Blevins. Yeah so.

Paul Joseph: 9:46

And some of the mentors are ones that just came along, that you know. They're coworkers. You know, I think of, like a Brian Dugan, a JD Degnan a.

Paul Joseph: 9:52

Kenyatta, garrett, brenda Anderson. You know people like that are just, they're so inspirational and they challenge you to think about things a little different way. So it's, I don't want somebody to be a S person who works with me. I want you you tell me straight what you think. Yeah, and they do that and they're just focused on the right thing for the school system, which right for the kids.

Michelle Ferebee: 10:09

So I appreciate that about them, Right? I'm glad you mentioned Carol Fleming because that was Oscar Smith middle school, my principal there. She's the one where she taught the damn mulligan and said I got somebody for you.

Paul Joseph: 10:20

And so that's how I ended up out of class. Yeah, she's an amazing, amazing guest. Yeah, yeah, no doubt.

Matt Graham: 10:24

Carol Fleming was my first principal at Oscar Smith middle I started here, she was so influential. I was telling Richie at her retirement, or when she left Oscar Smith middle. I like dressed up as her because she was always entertaining. So I did this whole dress up thing and we kind of did. She's like, I don't want anything all sappy, so we did a roast.

Paul Joseph: 10:43

And we just did this whole thing.

Paul Joseph: 10:44

It was awesome, well, I will say too, I think, the role of it if you have a spouse or partner, if you have, like, I've got a great wife but she's been there by my side and she's my sounding board and I go home, because there's some difficult things you deal with every day and sometimes you just don't know if you can work through it, things like that. But she gives me a perspective. One thing she says to me remember a year ago what you were fretting about that day. You said this is going to be that worst day. What was that?

Richie Babb: 11:07

And you don't remember, you don't remember.

Paul Joseph: 11:08

She gives you that perspective on that and like that keeps you kind of grounded and centered. She has to make sacrifices. This job takes up so much time.

Richie Babb: 11:15

Yeah, oh yeah, no doubt what's the hardest thing about being a school principal?

Michelle Ferebee: 11:21

Wow, you got to take this one first. I'm following you.

Paul Joseph: 11:25

I think for me it's just trying to take everybody's little piece and part of what they do and make it the part of the whole, how it fits in, how it's a piece there. I think that's my job, is trying to translate their little sections, which are incredibly important to them, but make it a whole and then for the kids and the parents and even the teachers sometimes it's like how does all these little parts algebra, one, chemistry, english, nine, photography- how does that make you a whole person?

Paul Joseph: 11:51

And then the other things we do, unofficial things. It's like filling and talking about character and good traits. I think that's part of what we have to do. It's hard because sometimes you can kind of get distracted from that. But if you got to go, always go back what's right for the kids. So I think that's what makes it better. You can get distracted easily in this job.

Michelle Ferebee: 12:06

Yeah, oh yeah, I'm sure I think the little's just coming from secondary, intermediate and now I have young scholars pre-K, k one, two learning their traits and how they think and how they are transitioning into a school building, being home, some of them with their parents, and then having to try to break apart and getting them into the building and feeling comfortable and safe from what they used to know and then coming into an actual school building. That's been eye-opening because in most buildings the students have already had that experience.

Michelle Ferebee: 12:42

So, now ushering in kids that never been there before. It's kind of like wow okay, okay little guy come on.

Paul Joseph: 12:49

I think, michelle, we've talked about this some too. Sometimes the parents didn't have a good school experience. You know, their school experience was rotten.

Paul Joseph: 12:55

And so they think their kids by default it's gonna be the same thing and it's hard to convince them. No, we're trying to do it differently now. I think we're better now than we were 10 years ago. I think so we're better now than you know, and 10 years ago they were better than they were 10 years before, because you learn, you grow and I think we get better at what we do, and I think it's hard to get them to trust that we're actually there for the betterment of their child because they had such a bad experience.

Richie Babb: 13:16

What do you think are some of the most significant changes in education since you got in? I know it changes constantly, but what do you see is really some of the significant changes in the way we do business? I wonder what you think and what I'm thinking.

Michelle Ferebee: 13:28

Go ahead. I'm thinking about the pandemic, because that brought on a lot of change and we've had conversations during the pandemic and just seeing that you know, going so quickly from being in school and then having to go all the way virtual, going to that one-on-one, and we still have a lot of those things that we learned from the pandemic going on now you know you still have kids going into CVA and you know, virtual aging and things like that.

Michelle Ferebee: 13:54

So handling those two platforms you know some of those kids still come back to us and then transitioning them back into the regular building. But we're looking at things differently. You know it's not always one, you know way to do things. Now we see there's a virtual component. We don't always have to come into a building to have a meeting. Now we can have one virtually. Now we don't always have to do trainings inside of a building, you can do it virtually.

Michelle Ferebee: 14:18

So I see that that technology piece, that component of it, being a big part of it. That's a change.

Paul Joseph: 14:23

Yeah, I think we got a real forced jumpstart on that. I remember handing out Chromebooks, I think day before Christmas vacation out there it was cold on the bus ramp and people were coming up because they wanted to have some sort of schooling.

Paul Joseph: 14:34

Yeah, it was really important Right, and I think now it might be. How do you manage that? How do you balance the advantages of technology with the human interaction? We had a little in-service yesterday at school on AI in its role, and I think we're going to have to learn how to balance and juggle that. That's going to be another challenge. It's not going to go away. It's just how do you use it properly and not let it overtake you. I'm so old I remember going from a slide rule to a calculator and the teachers being offended. You would have a machine that would do, and somewhere even offended. We had a slide rule that was like you should do it all by hand the calculations Right, and these old logbooks and things like that yeah.

Matt Graham: 15:10

So yeah, there's a lot of change there. I don't even know what a slide ruler is, Just straight up. I don't even know.

Paul Joseph: 15:16

You got to look you did calculations on it and it had. It looked like kind of like three rulers with a little slide thing on there. You had to go with that, slide it down here, put numbers on there, look in a book for tables and then match it up.

Matt Graham: 15:28

Oh my gosh, it was crazy.

Richie Babb: 15:29

Yeah, yeah.

Paul Joseph: 15:32

And that's how you did kind of like, and I had some of the higher level math in high school. I wasn't really good at it, but I had higher level math in there and you had to use those tools and that was the tool of the time and even then some of the teachers thought that was cheating, yeah. Right, I think like now like you know, there's, you know this AI, but I get it. You have to find balance with it.

Richie Babb: 15:48

How do you make it work? Yeah, I missed the chalkboard.

Paul Joseph: 15:51

I did.

Richie Babb: 15:53

I am right, it wasn't great on it, but but I do miss it. Yeah, well, I miss the smell of the Ditto machine. Yeah, oh yeah, and you'd hand out the papers and they were kind of slightly damp and everybody would just smell them yeah.

Paul Joseph: 16:05

You know, I was like yeah.

Richie Babb: 16:07

Right.

Paul Joseph: 16:07

Yeah, that's right, and my fingers are like my, the skin would come off my fingers because of that liquid.

Richie Babb: 16:14

Yeah, right.

Paul Joseph: 16:14

Yeah.

Matt Graham: 16:15

Yeah, so I don't know. Yeah, so what is your favorite thing about being a principal?

Michelle Ferebee: 16:20

There's so many things Seeing kids light up, seeing the light bulb go off. Recently I talked about seeing one child who was having difficulties transitioning to the school building but this year just walking in, making friends, being active, raising his hand, speaking to me now when he sees me in a hallway. So just seeing those students grow.

Paul Joseph: 16:41

Yeah, I think that personal growth is huge for me. I can think of kids right now. In recent memory and even back there, they had an epiphany and decided that what we were selling was the right thing. And when they do, when they jump on board, they jump on board with both feet and they're your biggest salesman afterwards for it.

Paul Joseph: 16:57

I have one that came back. He's come back a couple of times. He actually went to the middle school with me last year to tell them hey, I had a rough start in high school but I finally listened to what they were telling me to do. They had this program there for us. We can we have a merchant semen program. He jumped into that. He is so happy right now he says I'm taking a trip to Japan.

Paul Joseph: 17:13

But he was someone who had, didn't have a path, didn't have a focus and now he's got it, and now he's a total convert, in fact he wants to tell others there's a path for you which I love that.

Richie Babb: 17:24

Yeah, I think if anything really from the outside has visibly changed is the opportunities that students are offered now like that program and like all the CTE programs, you know, we've recognized that not everybody has to go to college, right, you know, and it's perfectly, it's fun. I mean, when I was in school, I mean you went to college, I mean that was the expectation.

Paul Joseph: 17:45

But you know, I've got my stepson is a welder, right you know, and he's I mean he's killing it, yeah, but yeah, those opportunities, and I know Michelle we talked about when she was in our bureau we had actually our bureau would talk about from kindergarten to 12th grade and beyond and where we all fit in on that whole plan. But then, like I said, I think after COVID it kind of made me set back because I was same thing. I thought college prep, that's the answer, and then some kids would go military and some kids would go over this. Now we try to make it so you have four options for high school and I want every senior, when they graduate, to have they're either certified for a career because they go, let's say, to the tech center or get certifications that we can get there at school. You know they could go to the military and the military either has career or to get career training to move you on to another career.

Paul Joseph: 18:28

Be college and college not just for the sake of college, but college leads to careers as well. Right, or the fourth is where I think we're really improving greatly is really that kind of where career companies will come in, offer our kids kind of paid internships, things like that, and then they go on to get those skills and just the awareness for our kids, because a lot of our kids don't even understand what big companies, all the things that they have. Like, let's say, we have Newport, new Shipbuilding and they well, I don't want to build a ship, but you know they have a communication department, yeah, yeah, they have a payroll department.

Paul Joseph: 18:55

HR department yeah, and the kids just don't have that awareness. So we're trying to bring it to our kids and it's really it makes me happy when I see that you know so they. I want every kid to walk across that stage, knowing the next day of life holds for them. So they don't say I'm going to get a job. Jobs are dead ends.

Richie Babb: 19:10

Yeah, yeah, you need a career, you need a career.

Michelle Ferebee: 19:12

Yeah, right, absolutely.

Richie Babb: 19:13

Right. If you had any advice to give firing administrators or new administrators, what would you sit down and tell them?

Michelle Ferebee: 19:20

Yeah, kind of good mentor. Find somebody who's going in the right direction. Talk to someone that it has been in the field for a while. They can give you some sound advice. Stay organized, stay on top of things but, most importantly, find a peer. Find a peer that you can talk to that understands what's going on and can guide you.

Paul Joseph: 19:43

Yeah, I agree with that, and I think we had kind of a a couple of years back. We did that training where they're. We were in that leadership academy, remember Right Right, and we were kind of paired up with elementary, middle and high school administrators and normally we don't really meet and sit and talk in depth, but we really did there and I thought we we learned a lot about each other and what we're going through and I think you understand a whole lot more by by the experience. I thought, yeah, we were in the same cohort and we just talked all the time and we started talking a lot more after that because it breaks down that barrier of the separation, the the different, you know, levels of school.

Michelle Ferebee: 20:16

Wow, well, I guess cause each level thinks they have their things, they're going through, but we don't see that other side. Unfortunately. I did see secondary. I knew elementary side, I knew the differences between them, but then when things started changing and and it evolves and you know, you lose touch a little bit. You hear the things that secondary is doing and then you hear the things that elementary and I think we became empathetic to each other and saying wow, I didn't know y'all were going through that.

Matt Graham: 20:43

Yeah, right. Things like that Well that's kind of like what you were mentioning, even as within your building principal role, your role there is like getting everyone to have these little parts to make the whole. So even at the different levels, with elementary, middle and high. All those different parts of the whole.

Matt Graham: 20:57

And the same thing, too, with our our previous episode where we had the SCA people come in one of the biggest things that they were talking about was the toughest job was to get the different perspectives and of everyone to understand, maybe, that common purpose. So I think that's something that is very insightful. You know, within here, with what I'm hearing with y'all, like it's just getting everybody on kind of the same page come together.

Paul Joseph: 21:22

So I think that's pretty cool. Well, and like I said, social media wasn't around when I was younger. It is now, and I hate to say it's designed to feed you more of what you already think.

Richie Babb: 21:30

Right, that's right. That's right, it's echo chamber, yeah exactly it.

Paul Joseph: 21:33

So you're hearing the same thing more and more and more and I think in school you get a chance maybe to just see don't have to accept the other side, just understand, there is another side, there is another side and explore that.

Richie Babb: 21:42

Yeah, yeah, no doubt, Keep it in mind. Of course this is a family oriented show. Do you have any inspirational or funny stories or stories that might sort of encapsulate what education is you?

Matt Graham: 21:57

probably have one that happens every single day, right, right. So, is there anything that pops up? Maybe it is something that you wouldn't mind sharing. That happens, you know what.

Michelle Ferebee: 22:06

My husband reminded me of something, because I was at Oscar Smith Middle School and it was a teacher work day, so we were free of kids and we were in the room having a meeting. And they called into the room and said Ms Furby, your son is on the phone. He says it's an emergency. I don't have a sign. I was like what?

Richie Babb: 22:25

They said yeah, your son is on the phone.

Michelle Ferebee: 22:26

I don't know what it is, but it sounds urgent. I think you need to take the call. So I come down and I said hello, hey, ms Furby, what you doing? I said who is this? It's me. I said, boy, what are you doing calling me? I just want to see how you do One of my students, one of my students.

Matt Graham: 22:42

And.

Paul Joseph: 22:42

I said why are you calling me? It's a teacher work day what are?

Michelle Ferebee: 22:45

you doing? I don't know, I'm just bored. I said, listen, I'm at work, I have the work. I need to hang up the phone. Okay, you gonna call me back. No, I gotta go, yeah, yeah, so we've established relationships with the students. I wanna hear from us every day.

Paul Joseph: 23:05

I've got another one, and then, if you have another one, I've got one after that.

Richie Babb: 23:08

So the first one it goes way back.

Paul Joseph: 23:10

I was a pretty new teacher. You'll get an idea of what year it was because we were doing current events in my class there and I had at the alternate school I had high school social studies, so I could catch all.

Richie Babb: 23:19

You know you had everything in there.

Paul Joseph: 23:20

So we did current events and we were talking about the Falkland Island Wars. So I pulled out my globe and the globe was really old I mean, but you know, had the globe up there. I said this is the United Kingdom and I pointed to it and I pointed to Argentina. Then we pointed to the Falkland Islands. Talk about where they're fighting over. So the student gets the things he points to the United Kingdom and he shakes his head like I understand what that is. Argentina got it Falkland Islands. He goes what's?

Paul Joseph: 23:44

this blue stuff out here.

Michelle Ferebee: 23:47

So maybe I need to go back to. I need to go back to a little more basics here, Maybe. Okay, that would be the ocean.

Richie Babb: 23:54

So we can talk about that. Wow, wow. Well, he learned something that day, for sure, and so did I. That was the big one. I learned more than he did. Yeah, a little bit of reflection there. Let's go back to the basic. Yeah, that's yeah.

Michelle Ferebee: 24:07

Oh Lord, Inspirationally, at Hickory High School I had a student who was a foster child. She came in and she gave me her back. She had a very rough start and for some reason she would only talk to me administratively. She would get in trouble. And she said no, I want that one. And she would come to me and she told me her backstory Backstory was more so. She wanted to go to school. She left whatever organization she was in and she enrolled herself in a high school. But now it's to anybody else. She was under the radar, she was living on her own and they found out that she had Enrolled herself. She was doing, she was lying on stuff, but she wanted to be in school. She knew she had to have an education and it was found out because she got sick. So she had to go to the hospital and they found out you know, she's not under anybody's care, she's doing this stuff on her own. She ended up at Hickory With a nice family, but she was having trouble adjusting. Having trouble adjusting. So we would talk, I would spend time with her and it got to the point when she said I'm sick of school, what can I do to get out? We got on a plan and she was able to graduate through summer school.

Michelle Ferebee: 25:14

Well, miss Turner called me one day. She was in summer school. She said we got to take a ride. I said what's happening? She said one of your young scholars. We got to take a ride. So we went over to any river where she was having her doing summer school and she was asleep. So we went in and talked to the teacher and he said he, she's doing this. She just keeps sleeping every day. So I tapped and she looked up and she saw me and she saw miss Turner behind me and we did like this, Talked to her in the hallway and she said what are y'all doing here? I said you teach a contact. And miss Turner. And miss Turner contacted me and we said we would go over here to talk to our hawks to find out what's going on Gave her the speech and we saw her walk across that stage.

Michelle Ferebee: 25:57

At the end of summer school so that was yeah, yeah to, and she's in the military now.

Richie Babb: 26:01

She's doing well Wow.

Paul Joseph: 26:02

That's great, that's inspirational, for sure. I think kids can keep you humble as well. So this is one I have and it's it's G-rated, so it's good. But in this case this little girl comes up to me in the cafeteria because I spend. I sit in the cafeteria during lunch times so the kids have access and I can watch them, but they have access to me. She came and says mr Joseph, you know what you look like a movie star and you know in my head like, oh man, I wonder which one it could be you know she goes.

Paul Joseph: 26:29

Yeah, you look like woody from tour story. Oh man, I'm like well you know, but I think actually I think woody's probably more fluid and move than I am, Because the kids are always like do you know you walk? Funny, like yes.

Richie Babb: 26:44

I am aware that I walk funny. Well, this has been fantastic. I really could talk to the rest of the day, but thank you for all the work that you do and the difference that you're making in the lives of these kids. It's uh, it's really immeasurable. So well, I want to thank you again for coming in. Michelle Fariby from um deep creek elementary, apologize to from ischel Smith high school and uh, keep doing what you're doing.

Paul Joseph: 27:06

All, right, until you're tired, I'm gonna give a shout out to my adventime. Yeah, down the fort for me right now. That's right, you're mine too.

Michelle Ferebee: 27:12

Way to go, there you go.

Paul Joseph: 27:13

You guys, you guys going great.

Richie Babb: 27:14

Thank you, sure Thanks, guys, thank you so much.

Michelle Ferebee: 27:17

Bye.

Richie Babb: 27:17

Bye, bye.

Michelle Ferebee: 27:18

All right.

Matt Graham: 27:25

We hope you enjoyed the stories behind our story on this episode of amplify the chesapeake public schools podcast. Feel free to visit us at cpschoolscom forward slash amplified for any questions or comments and make sure to follow us wherever you get your podcast.