What would make someone want to move from California to become
a middle school teacher in one of the poorest
areas of Baltimore, Maryland?
Take a look.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Go over to your worksheet now.
Can you read that question up at the top nice and loud for us?
Hi.
My name is Wyatt Oroke, but my kids call me Mr. O.
And I'm the humanities teacher at City Springs Elementary
Middle School in Baltimore.
There are neighborhoods within Baltimore
that have been under-resourced and underserved
for centuries based on political decisions made,
be it segregated housing or redlining
certain neighborhoods.
And so what that has led to is that our students
come from the highest poverty rates out of any school
in Baltimore City.
Since I've been teaching, I've had
students who have been homeless every single year.
I lost a student to gun violence.
I've had a couple students give birth to children.
One of them went into labor in my classroom.
And so for me, it's trying to show as much empathy
as I can, and just be a listening ear.
A lot of times, what our students like
is just someone to hear them.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Growing up in Baltimore has been very challenging.
It just made me strong and independent.
And my mother always told me to be independent.
Baltimore has a lot of people with big dreams.
I want to graduate college so that I
can change a lot of things.
Our principal, our school staff, all our teachers really
love our students.
And having them function from that strong place of love
has meant that our students get a lot of support
on a daily basis.
I buy a lot of independent reading books for my students.
I believe that the smartest people in the world
carry a book with them at all times.
And that's what I tell my students.
So anytime a kid asks me if they can get a book,
I'm always like, yeah, I can go on Amazon right now
and order it.
That's important to me.
There are so many times where I wish I could do more.
You know, I wish I could say that all my middle schoolers
who graduated are still in high school.
That's not the case.
I wish I could say every family that's
asked me for help I've been able to provide that help for.
And that's not the case.
I can't sleep a lot at night because I
think so much about my students and what they're going through,
and whether I did enough for them that day.
Teaching is an honor.
I know that my community here in Baltimore
has given me the responsibility to educate their children.
And that is something I don't take lightly at all.
I want to go to my dream college, UCLA, and be a doctor.
I want to become a photographer and video editor.
--to become a contractor.
I want to be a veterinarian so that I
can give back to my city.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I do what it takes.
From Baltimore, Maryland, please welcome Mr. O.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
Hello, Mr. O.
Hi.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
You got me a mess already--
I know.
[INAUDIBLE]
Because we surprised you.
You didn't know you were gonna be on the show.
I had no idea until minutes ago.
And then they were like oh, by the way,
you're going to sit in that chair
that you're watching right now.
I couldn't handle it.
Couldn't handle it.
Well, You're awesome.
You're amazing.
Thank you.
I mean--
The kids are amazing.
--you're amazing.
It's the kids.
It's all the kids.
[APPLAUSE]
So-- and you know, I love teachers.
And you say that teaching there has changed you.
How so?
I've been teaching for five years now,
and it has shaped the way I view the entire world.
It's shaped me as a person.
It's helped me understand patience and resilience.
And the honor to teach children every day
is something that is just unbelievable that I've
been given that great honor.
And how do you motivate them?
So it's a 30% dropout rate, is that right?
In the community that I work with.
Yeah, in the community.
So how do you motivate them?
How do you keep them interested?
It's all about opening doors for our students
and giving them points of access that they might not normally
have, whether it's meeting someone they wouldn't normally
get to meet, going somewhere they
wouldn't normally get to go.
I believe the more access points we can give them the better
experience they'll have.
So what are the biggest challenges
facing you in City Springs?
Access to opportunities.
You know, it's 2017 in America, and we
have kids who don't have equal access to opportunities.
And I get very emotional about that because it's not fair.
It's not fair that we aren't able to always provide
enough access to resources, enough books for our students,
enough field trips that they can go on.
And so access to opportunities is a huge challenge
that we face every day.
And your goals for your students are what?
Well, my short-term goal is to get them those opportunities,
be it meeting a city councilman, the state's attorney
came in and visited them, so meeting
people who will change their lives for the better.
Mhm.
And then long-term, it's to have them give back to Baltimore
in the way that suits them best.
You know, Chantelle wants to be a veterinarian,
and wants to open a veterinarian hospital in Baltimore
because she says there are stray dogs and cats that
need my help here, or the students who
want to become lawyers or doctors,
and they don't want to do what across the world
or across the country, they want to do it in their community.
Yeah.
And that's just amazing for me.
We're back with Wyatt, or Mr. O. And his mom's in the audience.
You didn't even know she was gonna be here.
I had no idea.
So, yeah.
What a great kid you raised.
He's a good guy.
All right, so when you hear-- we just
watched the tape before you came out about your students
and what they want to be when they grow up.
You know, it must make you think, well, then I
have to continue to do this, because they
have to actually-- she has to become a vet.
It's so true.
What happens in classrooms today impacts what
happens in the world tomorrow.
Like, I honestly believe that.
If you fill your classroom with love today,
you're gonna fill the world with love tomorrow.
Yep.
And so--
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
It's amazing.
That's so great.
And so true.
So true.
Well, thanks to Cisco video technology,
we're gonna check in with Jeannie
who's with some of your students right now.
And-- hi.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
Oh my god.
Hey, everybody.
Oh, here's a latecomer.
Oh, that's [? Kane. ?] Hi, [? Kane. ?] Oh my god.
Hi, [? Kane. ?] Hi, everybody.
All right, so I wanted to ask you
guys what Mr. O means to you.
So tell me what he means to you.
To me, Mr. O is family.
And I've been here since kindergarten,
and him and this school really helped
me understand that what I do now will impact my future.
Mr. O to me is very trustworthy.
I can trust him with all my issues and challenges
that I go through at home.
And he give such great advice that I
don't have to go through those challenges anymore.
[APPLAUSE]
So--
[APPLAUSE]
--so it must mean everything to you
to know you have this guy in your corner,
and that he wants to see you succeed.
That must really help you.
Yes.
It means everything to me that Mr. O has my back,
and he's always here.
And Mr. O is helping me achieve my big dream
and rewrite history in our own way,
and show that people-- there's more to Baltimore
than meets the eye.
Mr. O, he's very important to me because I don't have
the support system at home.
Like when I come from school and go home,
I don't, like, really have no one there.
So to have, like, Mr. O there at school in the morning,
and like, it's just very supportive.
And it's like I appreciate it a lot.
And this is why we all love him, because he's just
very supportive.
[APPLAUSE]
I love them so much.
All right.
Well--
[APPLAUSE]
Shutterfly cares about supporting schools in need,
and they want to give your school a check for $25,000.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
I think they have it there.
Oh my god.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
Oh, my god.