BrieSearch Subject : Debra West

Okay so I usually start out by by asking people to like imagine we are in their most comfortable place having a chat fireside chat convo and I don't know what I usually ask like what are we drinking where are we what are we doing what's your beverage of choice but I don't even know if you drink I feel like I am one of the people has the opportunity to be asking my elementary school teacher what her beverage of choice is well usually I I like mixed drinks you know and I only do that on occasions you know when we go out Or something like that I usually don't drink but I like sweet mixed drinks so I'll have a margarita every once in awhile Oh the girly drinks  yeah my husband looks at me like yeah yeah yeah  wowsometimes that's just what you need sometimes you don't grow out of it you just drink long island iced teas foreverso I guess this this is one of the most interesting interviews I’ve gotten to do seeing as how it's one of the longest relationships I think I have in my whole life and also one of the most influential because there's not a lot of people who you can stay have been like a constant presence in in your formative years I was trying to think about it today you've known me since I was probably six or seven years old  until I moved away when I was 17 so my perception is 20 years old and from a child's perspective so I'm interested to hear your memories and your point of view for my entire childhood and we haven't spoken in a long time so I'm looking forward to catching up Mrs Debra West who are you well I'm retired this is my first Year I retired in July of last year  2019 and I was at ASFL for 13 years and then I went to AAA for 10. ASFL  being the academy for science and foreign language in Huntsville Alabama and AAA being the academy for academics and arts both magnet schools in the Huntsville area where i taught third grade and I was reading coach then I became an assistant principal at Chapman Middle School and I became a principal seven years ago at Weatherly Heights Elementary School So I retired as a retired principal  Auburn Elementary School with pre-k through 5th grade it was a wonderful experience because I could really put my whole Vision my what I envisioned that a school should be and really try to make that a reality so that was really a wonderful way to end a 30-year career in education and really there's not much more you could ask you had a lot of experience kind of cultivating that vision of of an idyllic kind of school so let's see I don't want to go too far back into how long ago this  was that I was in school but do you have any specific memories of like kid Brie I mean you got to watch me from second grade through high school so I I remember you just being very outgoing very vocal and very friendly and I think the kids you know really I think they liked you I think you were very you were a leader not a follower you You are absolutely delightful were very intelligent and you were you you could you could speak on a more mature level than a lot of  students that were your age and you were like that as a small child and  really hold a conversation with adults.  that sounds about right  I remember that Not much has changed. I want to go back to the beginning Kind of how you came up at in your experience and education did you like school no really  no no no I came up in the sixties the early 60s  and I struggled I was struggling learner and I think a lot of it was that living in the suburbs of Philadelphia in the 60s we moved to North Hills and had to integrate an all white Elementary School so I was the only African American student and I couldn't read and I really couldn't do math or simple math I couldn't write I couldn't even write and when I got to fifth grade and this is all the way through 5th grade and I sat very quietly and the teachers more or less kind of ignored me and just let me you know just kind of Fade Into the background but when I was in 5th grade there was a young teacher and I believe you know when I look back at it she just had to have graduated from from college and she took me aside and she said Debbie you cannot read and I'm going to make sure that you can read and she made me stay in for recess and PE and everything else and she worked with me one-on-one and she taught me how to read she taught me simple math and she taught me how to write I used to hold my paper upside down I don't know if I was dyslexic or what but she caught me in one year and if it weren't for her I don't know what would have happened to me and that was a really big influence in my life my sister's were extremely smart and I just struggled and I don't know but there was something wrong I don't know what it was but she whatever it was she connected with it and I was able to catch up five years in one year Wow I was going to ask who had the biggest impact on the person you've become but that sounds like it's maybe this teacher oh yeah and I think that's why I had such a passion for teaching and that every child you know I really felt it was important and that they could learn if it was just you know presented in a way that they could get it How did you get into teachingwell you know I wanted I thought I was going to go into accounting and I I did my I got married at 20 years old and I had my first child at 21.  I was very young I married my high-school sweetheart we met in 9th grade so you know and I really was going  going to be a professional singer I was singing professionally with my sister's for about 3 years before I got married at 20 and we were traveling all around and doing things but when I got married I came off of the road and I went to  a local  2 year college school and I was going for business administration and accounting and I really enjoyed it and I said okay this is great I'll be an accountant but when my husband and I moved to Huntsville Alabama and we were going to Oakwood College and I was going to finish my last two years  in accounting and he was going into the ministry and what happened, he was going and he was getting all registered and I had by then I have four small children in the youngest was Robert and Robert was 6 months old at that time I had the four of them and we were sitting there and I was reading to the children and trying to keep them occupied while we were trying to get registered and this lady walked up to me and she said hi she said are you going to register For class and I said yes and she said are these your children and I said yes and I introduced her to the children and she said what are you going Major in I'm going to major in accounting I said  I'm going to try to be a certified public accountant in business she said I just want you to know that the Lord told me to come over here and tell you that you are supposed to go into Elementary education and I looked at her like do you see me sitting here with these 4 small children does it look like I want to go into Elementary education Right like I want more of them and I looked at her like oh no no no no so I was sitting there and I was thinking about what she said and  I was looking at the children and I kept thinking about what she said  and I kept thinking Elementary education I said no no no but I don't think I want to go  into Elementary education so my husband came back maybe about 30 or 40 minutes and he said Debbie there is the business school here’s where to go and he's trying to tell me how there's you know what he did and I so I said well Don I think I'm going  to change my major into Elementary education and he looked at me and said Elementary education I said yes but I'll explain it to you later but he just shook his head and walked over to the education and there was Doctor Bliss and she smiled and she said hi she says my name is  Francis Bliss and I'm going to be your adviser and that is how I got in to Elementary education I had no intentions of doing that so I really feel like it was following the path  I really feel like it was a callingIt probably helped that you are already running  a small daycare out of your own home right yesso how is your perception and your experience with education developed over a 30-year career I mean just in in my education alone there's been a lot of changes yeah it changes quite a bit it has changed when I first started I had never worked outside of the home so I was a stay-at-home mother so it was a big big transition for me to start working outside of the home it was very difficult but I really had to work very hard because ASFL was just a lot different than what you would have called traditional Elementary School and you know it was very very Innovative and Way Beyond schools that you know if I had  gone to  traditional settings but it was exciting because it was very challenging for me and the students we had such a wide variety of students we had a lot  of extremely bright students and when when I first got there  in 89 they had just started the Middle School to have a white students come from all over the city to that school and and go to school with African-American students for the first time and African-Americans sitting in class with white students in a middle school setting  was very challenging and i had to really work at building relationships and trust with the students and the parents so that that would even work to get it you know going So in 89 I think for about 3 to 5 years it was  very very hard because the population has never really even worked together before  Yeah there was nothing there was nothing like that  Nothing1427I want to talk about magnet schools and ASFL and kind of Huntsville in general I feel like I had a very very unique experience growing up one that I didn't Grow to appreciate until I was out of it and realized how different it was because  asfl was at the Forefront of a lot of experimental learning and  that had a lot to do with Huntsville and red stone Arsenal and NASA and kind of you know that whole Community but it was still even for the area kind of unheard of and it was also very unique  because when I was there was first through eighth grade I think they added kindergarten after but you're able to build relationships over literally like the most crucial time for Learning and for maturing you're there from like 5 to 15 years old that's when kids actually become people you know like not not many other times in your education are there that big of developments in changes going on and for you to be in the same place with I mean people coming in and out but with essentially the same group of people I think they were Twenty One of Us by the time I left 8th grade that stayed the entire time that's a massive thing and it's it's something that I you didn't realize when you're in it because I was in it you know but After the fact you kind of realize how rare and unique that experience was as well as the curriculum learning language and Science and computers and space and you know Advanced learning Everyday Math and Science and History we were also learning French  it was bizarre at the time but felt kind of normal so I want to talk about magnet schools in general and you know ASFL and AAA and then and then also the segregation aspect of kind of melding those communities together cuz again I was so young I feel like I had a very unique experience of kind of growing up color blind in a way that it seemed normal for me like that community seems normal to me and it wasn't until later it wasn't until I left that that I realized kind of how unique  and special that experience was  Yes I think coming from the north and having to come south really was a big transition for me because even though I did have to integrate an all-white school they didn't have to have soldiers and police officers  escort me and although it wasn't you know always being friendly and the best situation the really the north felt like we are so far advanced in this area then the South but the realization it really wasn't you didn't have the soldiers and all that yet there was still this wall that was up and I think that you know that's the reason that I was able to come in and I knew that if I did not have a close relationship with the adults in that building and show that I as an African-American respect and love you know my team members that the children would not be able to really see, and the adults also and I think that Mrs Conelly, she was our african american principal who was on the Forefront of so much of this progress and was also one of the most elegant women I've ever seen being the head of that And making us all aware of all of that stuff it starts with the top and then it has to you know dwindle down to the teachers and then toThe students and I think that once we got to the students that had been in the school in the elementary years it's  was so much easier but it was very difficult when you try to bring a middle school Sixth  7th and 8th graders into a school and you know when they're not used to being one another don't trust one another they don't feel comfortable around  one another and that was the work that was the really hard work 1900I can see that for sure because I can imagine that like like I said the kids that we started from the get go coming up is is a different thing than kind of indoctrinating students who aren't used to it you know so I imagine that had additional challenges we had kids coming in and out every year and because huntsville is such like a Melting Pot community of scientists and astronauts you get new kids coming in and out that you had to kind of start from scratch a little bit every time that but there were consistently a group of us moving forward but It wasn't the same  kids every year it was changing kind of as we went all along I think one of the things for me that kind of made that the most clear was when I was older when I got into the middle school system our like I said like my Elementary School experience was great but it is kind of a bubble-like asfl is the academy for Science and foreign languages in Huntsville Alabama there are two magnet schools the other one is the academy for academic art and magnet schools by definition are you probably have a better more concise definition for this but they bring students from all different areas of town to one school to kind of focus on whatever the subjects of learning they had to attract students from other areas so that the integration because the Huntsville was under a federal mandate to desegregate and it's been all 50 Years that they were were told that they needed to  desegregate  the way that back you know in 1989 and before they did it through  the magnet school program and that meant that they were doing something special little more like you said the foreign language The Arts that the parents would be attracted to the curriculum and the learning. enough  that they would be willing to drive or bus their kids to very special program so you had you know as a as a teacher instructor in that program in order to keep  those children from going back to their own schools you had to have more than that what they would get in their neighborhood  School I think the first time I really got an understanding of that was when I we moved to the middle school section of the school and we had more interaction with Davis Hills David Sills was the neighboring Middle School which had not been integrated and whose students suffered from poverty and delinquency and there were multiple incidences of violence on campus which really kind of showcased for me just how different my experience  was you know it was always I mean even when I was younger it was always like don't go over there the scary Middle School  don't go to that side of the campusright and you know when I had to go and be an assistant principal at Chapman it was like being in a totally different country I felt like I was in I didn't even know that  cancel even had you know I knew Davis Hills from afar but you know but I had no idea at the inequitable things that we're going on in this stuff that was going on in some of these schools. I mean it was eye-opening but it was something that I'm glad I experienced because I would have never known just being in the magnet schoolsyeah you move to AAA after asfl  did you find any glaring differences between them or more of the difference between the regular school system to the magnet school When mrs connolly retired and they got a new administrator took over and I just didn't agree with what she was doing We had some work so hard on things like AAAHP she didn't want to do that anymore.  she didn't want to do A lot of wonderful things that  really we had built and worked very hard on so that's  why I decided I said I really think I needed to go. I mean cuz this is just you know I just didn't our two philosophies were clashing and it wasn't right. I wasn’t Happy so I decided to go ahead and transfer and mr. Brown who was the principal at AAA said Debbie you know you know I’d love to have you so I mean I was able to transfer over there without any problem. the big difference was was and you know I would often think of you Brie I think you would have done very well At AAA as a matter of fact I think I think that would have been a perfect fit for you you know  just knowing you I think it would have been in the good fit and although I think we did a lot of innovative things at ASFL that I've seen AAA would have been perfect for you.  you are very animated you were very outgoing and I think the stage and all that would have really I thought I would think of you quite often when I was watch the programs with the kids. yeah I think I agree with that and I think that was one of the biggest things that I kind of I realized that more once I got to Lee because I went on a vocal performance track when I when I joined the magnet  At lee and kind of  everybody already there was AAA kids already and so I felt behind already like yeah  I can speak French but I didn't know a lot of the things that I would have got that the Arts School so I'm sure it would have changed my track I had a lot of you know regret about that growing up but also I feel like I got experiences at ASFL that you know I wouldn't have otherwise oh yeah both schools  we're very excellent but I'm telling you I would often think of you and I know you will find that hard to believe But I would say you know Brie would have really done well at the school cuz they would dance through the halls and they were singing and they were constantly you would have loved it I'm sure that I would I wish I could go back in a lot of ways do you find that like incorporating languages and art into the curriculum makes a big difference in the way kids learn Yes and I think that I think that both AAA and AFSL They're unique programs I think of gives are both schools gave  there students in the advantage and although AAA you know there's a lot of singing and dancing and movement and up and down and once again those kind of children need that they need that they learn  well they learn that way and then and then when you go to a ASFL with the science  and the math and the language foreign language in these children learning it from time they were  in kindergarten on I mean it is just amazing that you know children are getting those kind of experiences and as I said I think it was the reason that the children are successful after leaving those two programs yeah I agree and I think a lot of that has a lot to do with what things you go on to study  and the kind of experiences you had and l think to your point I was much more Well fit for AAA that would have been my wheelhouse to be kind performance track Oh yesbut it was interesting kind of not, kind of having to stretch my legs in a different way at ASFL which was not my strong suit or my choices for what I what I would focus on if I had to make the choices myself but that's a different kind of progress I wanted to talk about I wanted to talk about some of the programs that you implemented in the school system's I know from second grade was the reading program and I think correct me if I'm wrong I was the first class that was team teaching the team teaching experiment I had all four of you guys so can you touch on what those programs were and how you developed them  well when we work as a team we would sit down we had a plan together and they wanted like say for instance we would take the science and the math curriculum and try to make sure that we were implementing those standards into the reading And the writing and you know the research in the social studies and everything I taught the language arts and the reading part of it and social studies and I had to work very closely with my team to make sure that I was integrated in or bringing you know that the same standards that they were teaching in the math and the science so you know once again if it made it so you had to work very closely together are you you know you really had to understand exactly you know what the kids needed to really get the information and how you could incorporate that into your instruction it was such an effective way of not only teaching subjects but teaching kids cuz we all know when you you were connected I also want to touch on probably one of the most inspirational relationships I've encountered In my lifetime which is you and Sandra Montgomery my entire childhood from second grade on and I just always thought that you guys worked so well together and were such an interesting pair and had genuine affection for each other that I thought so cute yeah well you know honestly Sandra and I are best friends today aww that makes me happy to this day oh yes oh yes she is one of the most wonderful human beings I've ever met she is a very special person and Sandra and I or I mean we stay in constant contact I mean she’s a person that I remained very close with. that's good. that makes me happy to hear because you guys were so lovelyYeah it was it was wonderful I learned so much from her she had a lot of things that she brought to the table and I brought a lot of the Creative Energy to the team and we all each one of us had our own you know strengths and you know and weaknesses that she knows it was wonderful working with Sandra because she really really helped me and I don't think I would have been the administrator that I ended up being if it weren't for the organization she used to say now Debbie we have to do this will have to do that and I learned a lot from Sandra I did too for a bunch of years can we talk about AAAHP and what it is and when it came to be I again I think I was at the beginning of that with the cemetery  1995 when we started can you tell everybody what that is and what the project was and you'll have to fill me in on if there's been any updates I'm sure there have been since I left Well that was the Alabama African American historic project that Miss Conley really envisioned and brought to the school and what it was that she found the oldest city owned African American cemetery in the city and it was it was not being kept up there was no, History nothing was written down There was no African American history history in Huntsville.  we did our Huntsville was I think that's third grade curriculum  but there were no African-Americans included in that curriculum but mrs Conley had took it upon herself to say that we were going to find out this history so she came to the middle school  which was 6th 7th and 8th grade and told us that we were going to go into the cemetery and we were going to write it down this history and I I was like I don't even know how you  to go about doing any of that and she said I know how to do that and  she set us all down and told  us you know and then she said but I want the children to do that I want them to find this history and write it down and then I want it to be finally adopted into the curriculum Of our Huntsville and when we went to that Cemetery the grass was so tall and the headstones were broken and I mean it was like- are you kidding me you got to have lost your mind and we worked extremely hard and she got this city to come in and  cut that grass and she told them we were doing this when we started with the first class it was the one thing that it was I cannot explain it was such a wonderful wonderful project cuz first of all it really integrated all the subjects math It was science and history it was writing it was reading I mean in research I mean it was everything it was everything and we could go into that Cemetery all we had to do was look at the name and look at the birth date and had to go from there and then we had to find relatives that we had to go through the old newspapers and we would go into the library and microfiche Microfiche and go through all these things and the children were so into it so intrigued and  we could take the kids by car and we would just leave campus and just do this research and once we got a lot of research done and we traveled all over the country and presented this work and nobody was doing this. this is how  innovative this project  was and we need it was Service Learning and we would she made me the coordinator of it and I got a $120,000 over about seven or eight years so that we could go to the national service learning conferences and the children Would present and we flew all over the country showing the black history of Huntsville and it and eventually  it was adopted into our Huntsville you know they're all the research those children did all the wonderful things you would not believe the wonderful  African Americans that were right there in Huntsville but never were even spoken of it was never written down so it was at one of my I have to say it was the best experience I ever had an education doing service-learning in AAAHPI agree it's by far one of the most unique experiences that I've ever had and if I could if the memories that I have from that time It was just started when I was in fifth grade, the number if I could tally the number of weekends I spent of my life you know 12 to 13 11 to 13 year old self I spent weekends at Cemetery tracing Graves, and normal kids are out like Playing and roller skating.  and I'm in a graveyard Tracing Graves And I'm perfectly happy about it I learned how to use microfiche which isn't even  no one will  know what that is  anymore but these old film slides and we would sit in this library for hours pulling up copies and old old old newspaper articles I remember I was in I think I think it was the first I went to all three service learning conferences when I was in school but I think the first one is Minneapolis and I taught a class on Jumping the Broom which is African American Pastime about marriage and again at the time we're in such an interesting you know School community and doing all these new  fantastic things that it didn't ring any different to me that I would be up at somewhere and like you said I was a precocious kid but but I said I was going up there 11 years old you know doing a lecture on whatever this we learned and then it wasn't until much later that I was like oh yeah I taught a seminar at a national service learning conference When I was in the sixth grade  like I'm 11 years old up in front of adults and I'm teaching them about African-American history and Alabama and the questions we used to get I think this may be when I remember very specifically sitting in the cafeteria and I was eating like a Dum Dum lollipop and you told us a story about your time in Philly and some kind of racial tension that happened but we were talking about all the questions that people ask us in Minneapolis like do you wear shoes to school do you all share the same three books do you have paved streets and and a lot of them were jokes and but a lot of them were not and That was the first time that I we're doing this project right which is a specific thing unto itself but then to kind of experience the perception yeah of Alabama and Alabama schools in a totally different context. That I was  the first time I had ever experienced that like you can't be serious like that's what you actually perceive this as and a lot of people like yeah I don't I don't I'm not kidding Oh yeah they would ask me do these children really get along? are they really allowed to work together? and I'm looking at them like yes this is real I mean it's not like we are putting on some show here this is real they couldn’t even believe that intelligence there were even intelligent beings in Alabama let alone that the children were sitting there teaching them something  yeah teaching them something and these kids are communicating with each other more effectively right and communicating with each other  in a very respectful and loving I mean you guys and developed a  deep relationship Absolutely just like you were saying with Sandra and myself You know friendships and they could not even imagine that coming out of alabama. what do you think the perception vs reality is like for people who who think about Alabama as an education District I  still think they feel that they feel Alabama and Mississippi you know I think they still feel like you know of Kentucky where they are backwards you know I think they think that they think you're ignorant and I think that I think they still have that perception to this day I really do
 Do you think that how or where you were raised influences the way you interact like the rest of the world? I do because I've had this very unique singular experience but you kind of got to see how how it affects hundreds of children Yes  I think that you Huntsville is a very unique place you are not going to find Huntsville anywhere else in Alabama it is an international City that also has three universities i and a community College, I mean it's a wonderful wonderful place but it's not going to be your typical experience that you have in AlabamaI had I had a hard time trying to explain that to people like I know you went to school Alabama you must be a redneck hick and I was like actually the school that I went to is probably the most advanced elementary education you could ask for in a lot of different ways and I mean I think about like you touched on earlier I was extremely involved in a lot of Things but also just the amount of stuff going on like aside from the projects in the service learning and the curriculum there was like these cultural extravaganzas and you know weekends of of trips and all sorts of things that we're just constantly happening that kids don't really get the chance toExperience. We built a greenhouse  yes we both agreed house and the pond  and a pondoh yes dug up a pond I mean and then we had rabbits hopping down the halls and ducks oh my goodness I learned how to go spelunking when I was in the sixth grade how many kids can say that Bizarreit was a cool place a really cool place.  and I think also because you're there for so long and you're there with the same kids We really did build relationships because I feel I feel to this day but like the relationships I've built at asfl are are those kind of friendships that you don't have to talk to you don't have to go back and have constant Communication you know what I mean like I feel more close to so many people that I went to school with like they are family to me and like they know me in such a different way than anyone I could begin to interact with now we we know each other on such a different more intimate level because because of how we came up and like yeah I was I was in between Debbie and Robert I was in between two of your kids who were my friends Debbie and Robert would have done very well at AAA too I mean but I think that you still got a lot of creative and you still got a lot of great things at asfl cuz you could get on stage and you did Present and when you were able to you know I mean it still was all there but it just a different kind of formats than just being a and learning this is stage right you know  this is this choral singing you got all that  but it was just differentYes I got to do plays too they were just in French that was a whole other challenge of having to do them in a different languageHow have kids changed in the last 30 years 4444 I think it has as changed you know it is really funny because you know when we were at ASFL we had a lot of students that were Autistic on or had a lot of those of behaviors that everyone started getting but we didn't have the label and you didn't have the you know IP to help them but we had a lot of that I think that and mostly if they had autism or Asperger's or anything like that they would send them to asfl The Homeschool would say you know what I think that child would do very well at they're really bright but yet they had really you know and then you and the other children had to really accept those differences so not only were you accepting differences as far as culturally but just the behaviors  and the way they interact and some of them were very very strange children  and then you guys had to have all of that you know  in your class and you grew up with them since little and you love them and accepted them and their little quirks or whatever they had oh there are some names I'm thinking of very specifically I know exactly who you are talking about in some of those scenarios  that I'm just thinking that we just kind of learned to just let it go that was them you just learned that was them  and I think that there's more of that across-the-board where then it was just a rare you know you might have one or two but I mean  there is a lot of autism there is a lot of Asperger's  there is a lot of children that have behavioral problems and also the family is not as I don't know I don't know what's going on but when I was I had no idea as a principal you you really are privy to knowing everybody in that building pretty much and if there's a problem in a family or anything like that you know it because it is in the school but I'm sure there's a lot of mental illness in children but because the parents had the mental illness and then there's the drug addiction and then there's just a lot that Society has is broken down in the children's are just very young age coming in with problems and and things that are just horrific and the teachers are having to deal and then with the special ed children with all kinds of different behaviors and stuff that are being put into the classrooms and it's everywhere now you know I think that ASFL had it from the beginning  and we just kind of adopted but every school is having to deal with all that  and the iepson like I said the mental illness and in the thing that concerns me with this virus  is that the children are not in school because some of the kids they're only safe place they have is at school and for them to be in a constant atmosphere where parents are sick  or parents are addicted or abusive  or not able to really give them the nutritional you know nutrition that they I mean they would come come kids they would come to school in the morning so hungry  you say okay baby go in there and get your breakfast you know you fed them breakfast you fed them lunch and you know a lot of times you made sure they had something to go home with so that had something for dinner and I don't know what's going to happen  when this is all over  with that population of the children that are just you know they're safe place was school did the one positive thing that they had was school or sports or  the Arts or whatever you know  what I'm saying it was the one thing they had to hang onto and I and I as I told the my teachers I said you stay in contact with those children ask them how they're doing you know I had to  call DHR all the time please check on these children something's not right you know I don't know it it would keep you up at night you know just worrying about families and children and what's going on in and then you're trying to educate and making sure that these children on grade level and reading and fluent and even that kind of thing is so much more than opening a book and teaching something now 5005and then I also think to your point that I think it's taken for granted often just how much teachers know and acknowledge and kind of absorb from their children's lives because I can speak with experience I as a student didn't realize how involved you guys were with our child Drama in our lives  and our habits and histories you take for granted how much you pay attention how much you know about these kids how much do you see of their habits and their routine and just to watch that get sidetracked is has got to be so frustrating how do you think how do you think that being a parent has influenced your teaching style and then how do you think that teaching has influenced you being a parentwell I think that being a stay-at-home mother for their formative years was a blessing you know and then to have them at the school with me they they went through you know ASFL and then you know I was pretty aware of you know what was going on and then I think pretty much they didn't want to embarrass me and if they did you know it was just like they would be so you know Horrified I think that, oh your kids were always so well behaved like not really that they had any other choice they were sweet kids but  they couldn't dare step out of lineI think that I had to put so many hours  and so so much of myself into the children  for these last 30 years that I felt like I hadn't really given my family  what I really  should have you know should have you know I just thank God that they even turned out right cuz I'm telling you it was an all  consuming career I mean it just wasn't especially when I went into Administration and I loved what I did and I love the children that I love the relationships and I loved every minute of it I really did it was just so wonderful and I thank God that that woman came up to me and said you need to go to education i would have never I would have never ever ever ever gone to education I mean I was able to go I went to China and stayed there for a month I mean I've been all over this country with children With Triple H B I did things that no other educator could even  imagine you know I mean it's just been so phenomenal for me but I knew I have 10 grandchildren  oh my God oh yes now we came with four we ended up with Debbie five  there was six of us when we came now there is 20 of us and it's now time for me to get to spend time with my grandchildren get to really know them and put some of that into my family that I put into so many others oh my gosh so that's where I am right now in my life definitely you had an impact on thousands of children at this point  thousands well you know I had to I had a bone spur in July when I retired and I had to have surgery and my doctor after the surgery and I went back for the post-operative whatever you call it and I went in and she said she said mrs. West I want to tell you something she said I was in that operating room with 4 assistants then she said when I you know they brought you in and she said one young lady said that's my son’s  principal that's Miss West and she said the next woman said oh that’s mrs west she was my 6th grade teacher at ASFL and then she says the next person says she was she was my best friend in high school and said every one of them knew you everyone is talking and you were asleep but they were talking about you the whole time now that's totally amazing and I just looked at her and she said mrs. West I have never had an experience like this that's so true  she said I knew I better take good care of you  a lot of people are going to be very disappointed if you let something happen I said that's amazing that's just amazing5530that's got to be one of the most gratifying kind of moments Yes  I have students contact me on Facebook or something and say do you remember and I'm just  wow I mean I couldn't have asked for more obviously social media has changed The way all of us interact especially during these  uncertain times but how do you think it has changed like the teacher-student relationship? I went through a few years ago I went through I went home for Christmas and I went through all of my old asfl year books and they’re like paper and like the size of a notebook and I typed in everybody's name to all of my classes in to Facebook and I found as many people as possibleWowI mean and we're still friends. We don't talk A lot but there’s like a group that’s on Facebook it's all the ASFL people and every now and then they'll be like a picture that comes up or a story we are all  still connected in such a way that it makes me feel that they're still a part of my my world yes so I assume that social media has changed the teacher-student relationship  both while you're in school and after Yes and you have to be very careful at the professional level and I used to I had told my teachers you know you really need to be careful  what you post or what you're saying and I  really try  very hard to only post inspirational things the positive things in things that you know people can use and yes and if they read it that it's going to make them feel better but I have had so many people contact me and befriend me and stuff and it's just the coolest thing to see them grow up and and what they're doing and it's just like you know something that you know you never would have experienced in years past I was just really really really kind of cool Yah there is a lot of messed-up stuff going on in the world but there's also a lot of great we've had a chunk of really great time I mean even for you to contact me I was like oh Brie  wow so cool Like today i mean I couldn't get connected I had to get my granddaughter to get help get me connected I mean  hey we've come a long way since the days of microfichedo you know  even with this whole thing with the teachers now have to do virtual learning I believe it's going to change education again I don't think there's going to be snow days that I don't think  your going to miss school for sickness  I think you're going to be able to keep things moving I think it's going to change the face of Education again I agree I think it will change the  face of a lot of things including the way people communicate the way people you know stay connected  and can work from wherever even the way you work you know if you can work from home  I  think and it's just going to change a lot of things you know just this experience that we're having but I do feel like education is going to change again  I promise I would ask what are the top three books in educational literature that are important for kids and for adults as well and why I think for for educators it is climate building and then team building any any book that shows you know if you don't have a happy building if you don't have a teams working like we did at asfl really care about one another because you're not just for teachers are four subjects or four grade levels or whatever you’re human beings that are having their own personal trials and tribulations and  if you don't have a friendly building  of caring adults you can't help children so I always going to try to read things on climate building and relationship building in and making a happy building because if you don't hear laughter in the hallway and you know you've got a toxic environment that learning is it isn’t really going to be the best That it could be also think that reading on every grade level including High School is important anything especially for those students that are strugglers and every teacher needs to make sure that they are you know doing some kind of reading so that students you know are able to open up the world to them that you know and become a lifelong learner and a reader because if you can't read Then  you're going to  struggle like you're going to struggle like I was a Reading Coach once again and then and being a principal I tried very hard to just have a happy building that you know was working making sure you know we i sang to the children in the morning is going to be the best day of our lives and in the afternoon we talked about I'm just trying to stay positive song and sing to them every afternoon and celebrate something that I saw in that building and if you just do that you will find it it'll all take care of itself it'll take care of itself so it just like I said I've had one of the greatest careers that I could have asked for and only because I I listened and I only had like 30 or 40 minutes to decide and with that decision  it was a good one that may have been the best 40 minute decision  you've ever made I kept saying no no no I don't think so no no no and I could have said no and I would have ended up a certified public accountant I think your life would have been a little bit different yes yeswhat are you looking forward to next now that you're retired and can just spend time with your grandbabies  I look forward to really spending time with my husband and my family and you know and in once again God gave me this wonderful wonderful idea to work with my granddaughter is Ciara and my daughter Debbie we do generational chic and we just do a little YouTube channel on just things they were interested in and they test me and make me over trying to help me look better and they laugh at me and it's just three generations and how we interact you know in and in the one thing they make fun of me is the technology they're always trying to get me that she laughed at me as I try to get on this technology with you We could have just did this whole thing as our little Channel  this week so you know just doing things with my family and the principal  at Mountain Gap ask me to come in and work with the 6th 7th and 8th grade students that were behind in reading and so I was volunteering and doing that which was another you know thing that just has very rewarding until this all pandemic thing happened but I'm just taking it day-by-day and doing what I want to do and if it's something I don't think I would have liked i say  no I don't think I want to do thatno thanks  no it's just been great it's just been great it really hasI'm so happy for you I'm so proud of your your career  and your accomplishments I'm so honored that I was a part of it for as many years and I want to thank you so much for coming today and figuring out the technology you know you were so prevalent in so many of my memories from growing up and I'm sure the lessons that I learned from you extend far further than history and spelling and curriculum that you learn in school I learned a lot from from watching you interact with everyone around you so I want to thank you so much for that And I thank you Brie I really appreciate that I really do well it was wonderful talking to you please tell The fam I said hi it's wonderful talking to you and you knowanother thing I remember about you Brie I remember you winning the contest when they had a to name a street  oh my Godand you named the street a Cleaner Way and you won a computer for your classroom I remember these things but like I said I just remember I remember you as being a wonderful wonderful child,  you really were you were a delight, you really were.  I'm glad that that is your overriding memory your overriding impression you're right yes that was good times a cleaner way BFI recycling see I remember those things I love itthank you so much it was  good hearing from you thank you I'll talk to you soon okay  bye-bye