HSU alum Deborah O'Banks ('05/'06), a Special Education teacher and Hearst Scholar at Trillium Community Charter School in Arcata, imbues her students with confidence.
She knows how. Her own confidence is self-taught.
An apostle of the work ethic, Ms. OBanks is a single mother of four, a committed service giver, youth group leader, Horse 4-H teacher, church volunteer, house builder, chainsaw wielder and motorcycle mechanic.
HSU alum Deborah O'Banks ('05/'06), a Special Education teacher and Hearst Scholar at Trillium Community Charter School in Arcata, imbues her students with confidence.
She knows how. Her own confidence is self-taught.
An apostle of the work ethic, Ms. OBanks is a single mother of four, a committed service giver, youth group leader, Horse 4-H teacher, church volunteer, house builder, chainsaw wielder and motorcycle mechanic.
Hidden away in wooded mountains up a dirt driveway in the vicinity of Willow Creek are her house and three racy bikes: an English classic and Isle of Man winner, a 1969 Triumph 650 (the first works Triumph was made in Coventry in 1902); a 1986 Yamaha Virago 535 (unique for a shaft drive instead of a chain); and a 1982 305 Kawasaki with twin carburetors.
"Oh my gosh, if I've had the carburetors off that Kawasaki once, I've had them off a million times," Ms. O'Banks exclaims with a laugh. "I think I've gotten to work on it more than Ive gotten to ride it!"
Her love of things mechanical, whether chainsaws or motorcycles, is fueled by a passion for problem-solving. She believes that teaching Special Ed children how to solve problems instills the confidence judged so potent by the 18th century French diplomat Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand.
"You have to persuade children that they have power, including the power to teach themselves," she says. "I tell them that."
While enrolled in Humboldt State's Special Ed teaching credential program in 2005-2006, Ms. O'Banks learned that equipping children with problem-solving strategies builds their independence and self-sufficiency. "Then they know, for example, how to approach their homework. They learn to break down a task in sections or steps, so they don't feel overwhelmed tackling something all at once. Special Ed kids often feel overwhelmed, especially while reading, when they come across words they don't know. So I teach them to relate a strange word to a familiar one. They can use that technique again and again, by themselves."
Ms. O'Banks, a former recreation director among her other roles, uses classroom games to induce children to open up. "Games bring their personalities out, reveal what theyre interested in, show their abilities."
But, she hastens to add, one-on-one involvement is the key. "You can't just put them into a group and say, Let's do this or that. It's embracing the child that counts."
Her case in point is a nine or ten year old boy named Jeffrey, afflicted with multiple mental disabilities, which also presented themselves physically. He was aggressive, disliked, widely felt to be frustrating to work with in the classroom. But instead of exiling him to the principal's office, Ms. O'Banks talked with him about learning to deal with his issues. Gradually, she established a trust, got to know him. When Jeffrey turned angry, she told him that everyone feels anger at times. "You have to learn where to put it, in ways that aren't going to be harmful to other people," she explained to him.
As the relationship flowered, it was evident Jeffrey lacked self-confidence. At one point during a classroom project, he blurted out, "I'm so stupid! I dont know anything!" Ms. O'Banks gently guided him through a list of the things he had taught her in the course of their research on endangered black rhinos. "I didn't know all this stuff about rhinos until you did this project," she told him.
"This gave him a little bit of empowerment," she recalls. "A lot of them feel that things are out of control in the world."
Ms. O'Banks peppers her conversation with references to holistic teaching, educating the whole child. Her philosophy resembles that of Kimberly Oliver, the 2006 National Teacher of the Year, who addressed an audience at Humboldt State in February. It was a presentation Ms. O'Banks was unable to attend, owing to major surgery that had forced her to take a leave of absence (she hopes temporarily) from Trillium. Ms. Oliver said her professional experience had confirmed what exhaustive research and parental intuition had proved, that the quality of the teacher is the single most influential factor in a child's academic record. Excellent teachers, she declared, are those who give their hearts to their students everyday.
When Ms. O'Banks became one of 12 recipients statewide to win a 2005-2006 William Randolph Hearst/ California State University Trustees Award for Outstanding Achievement, she confided, "I feel I have the potential to be a good teacher--but my aspiration is to become a great teacher."
Queried now about what she meant, there is no hesitation. "To me it means teaching every single child as an individual. And teaching is much more than academics--its about all aspects of their lives, who they are as a person, how they are getting through life. It isnt just intellectual discovery, its self-discovery."
At the end of a probing discussion of life in the classroom, Ms. O'Banks is asked what sort of self-discovery she picks up from tinkering with motorcycles. "That I wished I'd gone to motorcycle school," she laughs. "I replaced the clutch myself on that Yamaha Viragonow that's empowering!"
Nothing is more efficacious than confidence; and it is at its fullest force when it springs from the care and attention of a great woman, around whom are gathered all ideas of power and protection. Talleyrand (b. 1754)