By Derrick Brown (follow on Twitter @dbrowndbrown)
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“Mi Gente” Day (1366 Words)
(48th Day of School — October 15, 2025)
By Derrick Brown (Join Our Mailing List!)
Yesterday (Tuesday 10-14-2025) exhausted me.
It killed a measurable number of brain cells … not from volume or noise … but from the mental wear of sustained absurdity and emotion.
The day moved through several levels of tension and grace … from the low hum of sarcasm … to the quiet uplift of reunion.
The morning began with classic 1A “snark” … persistent and performative.
I absorbed it in silence.
There is often more wisdom in stillness than in confrontation.
When students attempt humor … at the expense of order … silence sometimes speaks louder than correction.
Yet that silence carries weight.
It fills the room until someone finally notices that humor has landed flat.
Later, persistent 3A ignorance required a different response.
I met it literally “up against the lockers” … not as discipline … but as counsel.
I shared one of my most difficult and misunderstood stories ... when a former student once texted her father that I had her “up against the lockers” during a counseling conversation.
He arrived furious, until we clarified the context and ended up laughing together.
I told my current students this story because it reveals the thin line between perception and truth … and how trust can collapse … or be rebuilt in a single sentence.
By the afternoon, I encountered Block 4A introspection.
That class listened as I reflected on my recent homecoming experience … and the abject foolishness I had observed earlier in the day.
I was wary and weary … yet their stillness gave me room to breathe.
There was less performance and more curiosity.
It reminded me that fatigue does not eliminate meaning … it simply requires pacing.
After dismissal, I met one of my 2B students (DA) … and her much “snarkier” unnamed friend ... attempting to re-enter the building after the security detectors had been turned off.
The situation carried a manageable risk.
Allowing students inside after hours requires discernment … especially when safety systems are inactive.
I decided to engage rather than react.
I explained the procedure … observed their tone … and allowed them through … but not before addressing the cliché pattern of casual disrespect that often travels with familiarity.
DA understood … her friend deflected.
The moment was a reminder that boundaries must be explained before they can be respected.
That evening, reflection turned into outreach.
I recognized that I needed to be intentional about building what I called “fine fellowships” within the school community ... relationships that mature beyond crisis and resist corrosion by “snark” or rumor.
Without such fellowships, multiple classrooms could evolve into untenable cauldrons of tension.
So I began the next morning by sending emails.
The first went to LS from last year’s 4A geometry support class.
I wanted her to know that I had been moved, but not removed.
When she replied, I realized that she was still enrolled at our school.
She visited later … accompanied by NH … another former student I had thought had transferred.
Both admitted that they had assumed I had quit.
Their surprise confirmed what I had felt since my reassignment ... that the move functioned as a containment strategy … a quiet erasure.
Yet standing there … in front of these two students who had once challenged … and eventually respected me … I felt restoration.
Our “crooked paths” had converged again.
The visit transformed an ordinary morning into a watershed.
Encouraged, I continued reaching out.
I emailed DW from first block, attaching “360-Degree Revolutions.”
I wrote DA to continue our conversation about the re-entry issue … she responded immediately with maturity and openness.
I also contacted 3A’s JahA and AS (whom I had counseled “up against the locker”) … 3B’s KS and JS … and 4A’s AD to share “Lizard Liability.”
Their responses ... especially those from DW, KS, and JS ... were thoughtful and present.
From “360-Degree Revolutions,” DW remembered that she had been “one of ninety.”
She later browsed through ReachThenTeach.com with visible wonder.
Watching her explore the site, I saw recognition spread across her face ... the realization that her classroom experiences had been preserved and reframed as learning artifacts.
That moment connected technology, authorship, and memory into a single act of validation.
Later, DA approached me again to resume our safety conversation.
I explained the delicate balance of allowing access … while maintaining authority.
She listened attentively as I described how her friend’s casual sarcasm toward an unfamiliar adult complicated trust … in moments when safety depends on tone.
I believe she understood both the explicit and the parenthetical message.
Our conversation was interrupted by the arrival of LS and NH, but I carried its residue into later classes.
In 3B, JS struggled to retell the “Lizard Liability” story to her classmates.
Her effort was halting … but sincere.
I helped her dramatize the key moments … until the group caught the rhythm.
That productive struggle became a teaching point.
I reminded them that our Monday quiz had been designed to create a similar challenge ... to make them explain their reasoning … rather than hide behind numbers and mimicry.
Explanation is a discipline.
It demands patience, vulnerability, and belief.
Because I had not emailed 3B’s CK, I decided to invite her to start the listening circle.
She engaged “Re’sume’ Say” from the “listening chair” behind my desk.
Her laughter at the song’s opening … shifted into sober focus once she began to listen instead of look.
The transformation mirrored what I had witnessed weeks earlier (on 9-19-2025) … when 1A’s DL learned the difference between hearing and understanding.
After CK’s session, I invited JS, KS, CM, and MM1 to listen.
Several remarked with honest surprise that the song was “actually good.”
JS added that I was “bringing that heat.”
Their language was informal, but their respect was evident.
One student, MM2, had been moved near my desk on October 7 to create opportunities for quieter conversation.
She appeared visibly upset when she was not invited to the listening chair.
After watching her peers engage with sincerity, she reconsidered her resistance.
MM1 encouraged her to participate, and she did.
The moment was small but significant … connection replacing avoidance.
BG invited himself to listen.
Afterward, he told another student that the song sounded “kid-friendly, kind of like KidzBop.”
His tone was dismissive … yet predictable … from someone who “invited themselves” to a seat purposed to promote humility.
His “invited” turn will come later … when readiness outweighs hubris.
I have been told that folks believe I am doing karaoke in my videos.
They fail to recognize that these “live” recorded performances are original compositions ... songs I wrote, produced, and recorded.
The misinterpretation amuses me more than it frustrates me.
It proves that art that looks effortless can be mistaken for imitation.
Ease can hide labor.
Despite fatigue and misunderstanding, the atmosphere of the classroom changed.
As students gathered at the door, someone noticed the poster on the “Mirrors and Windows” bulletin board that read, “Real eyes … realize … real lies.”
Several began to recite it aloud.
Their voices carried no sarcasm, only recognition.
The words landed differently because they had begun to experience what the phrase implies … that perception and understanding are acts of honesty … not coincidence.
In that closing scene, I understood what the day had taught.
The deliberate outreach ... the choice to email, invite, and listen ... had transformed potential chaos into connection.
I had chosen to reach rather than retreat.
Each conversation, each song, and each visit stitched a new thread into the fabric of fellowship that holds a classroom together.
The day had begun with exhaustion and ended with renewal.
It demonstrated again that “fine fellowships” do not emerge from convenience … they are built in tension, humility, and repeated effort.
They require a teacher to extend grace toward former students … to confront misunderstanding with humor … and to treat creative work as a bridge rather than a shield.
Yesterday did indeed kill a few brain cells.
But in their place grew a new understanding … fellowship is maintenance, not miracle.
Peace must be built daily … student by student … song by song.
Selah.
(The "Follow The Leader (changED - Volume 2)" Audio and Video Album / Mixtape is also available at TeachersPayTeachers.com)
(The "changED (Volume 1)" Audio and Video Album / Mixtape is also available at TeachersPayTeachers.com)
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I am a “standup storyteller.”
I fuse rap, spoken word (poetry), oration (traditional public speaking), singing, and teaching into messages of hope, healing, and change that I write, direct, and produce to help people who help people.
Everything must change - and stay changED.
Tradition begins and ends with change.
Change begins with me and the renewing of my mind ... then continues through efforts to effect small-group discipleship (equipping others to equip others) with audiences that respect and embrace mentoring, mediation, and problem solving as tools of change.
I am the product of my mentoring relationships, peacemaking (and peacekeeping), and problem-solving ability.
My education began when I finished school.
After school, I enrolled in a lifelong curriculum that includes classes in ministry, entrepreneurship, stewardship, literacy, numeracy, language, self-identity, self-expression, and analysis / synthesis.
My projects execute a ministry that has evolved from wisdom earned through lessons learned.
I want to share this wisdom to build teams of "triple threat" fellows - mentors, mediators, and problem solvers.
We will collaborate in simple, powerful ways that allow us to help people who help people.
I now know that power is work done efficiently (with wise and skillful use of resources, interests, communication, and expertise).
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