Teacher of the Week felt called to be an educator since elementary school (2024)

KENTWOOD, Mich. — Our final Teacher of the Week this school year goes to a teacher at East Kentwood High School. She’s a special education teacher who says the job has been a calling from a very young age.

Her name is Emma Fowler and after walking into a room full of cheering students and staff, plus balloons, she said, “It’s a huge surprise. I mean, walking in here and just this event and seeing everybody is a shock but I feel very appreciative and very honored to be recognized. I think it took a second just to process.”

Omar Bakri is the principal of East Kentwood High School. He said, “When I first found out about it, I was truly joyed.” He also said the students “love her, they cherish her, and they listen to her, and she teaches them everything that they need to know to get onto the next level.”

“I feel like, in a sense, like I don’t know what I’ve done that’s different than the people around me. I feel like everybody in this room, my colleagues, deserve the same recognition but I’m grateful,” said Fowler.

Bakri praised her work ethic, and said, “She comes to work every day ready to work and she has a smile on her face and a great attitude.”

“I have felt called to be a teacher since I was even in elementary school. I grew up in the Lansing area and my public school district that I grew up in had a really great inclusion model. So, just from a young age, I was around my peers with disabilities and had fantastic friendships,” said Fowler. “I think since I was like a fifth grader I could’ve told you that I wanted to teach special education.”

The school serves a lot of students with many different needs.

“East Kentwood High School is the most diverse high school in the state of Michigan. It’s also the largest high school in the state of Michigan and with that diversity, it isn’t just about the color of your skin. It’s about your background, socioeconomic and even your educational level and our kids have just different needs, and so with our special education department, it is designed to meet the kids where they’re at and make sure that they have a quality education and help them achieve their goals,” said Bakri.

Fowler told 13 ON YOUR SIDE, “It’s definitely a calling. I really love the work that I do and it’s extremely rewarding.”

She explained more about her curriculum, saying, “I have the privilege of kind of teaching life skills and our jobs skills classes. So, I take my students out into the community and just get to do things that prepare them for adulthood and independent living.” That includes topics like, “budgeting, to housing, to cleaning and cooking.”

Not every day is easy.

“It definitely, some days, can feel like a thankless job,” said Fowler. “Some days you can just feel really like discouraged because you’re not sure if you made the difference that you want to make.”

Principal Bakri said, “We don’t remember all the professionals that we encounter in our lives. We don’t remember the plumber, the salesperson, the marketing person, the doctors, everyone that we encounter, but we do remember our favorite teacher and that’s very important. There’s a reason why. Because those teachers leave a lifelong impact on kids that’s going to stretch all the way until their adults and hopefully make a difference in their lives.”

“Any simple ‘thank you’ from a student, from a parent, even from our colleagues – just words of affirmation go a really, really far way,” sad Fowler.

While this was our final Teacher of the Week this school year, 13 ON YOUR SIDE is not done yet. On Monday, June 10, we will reveal our Teacher of the Year. You’ll see the amazing moment we surprised that educator in front of the entire school and presented them with a $1,000 prize from our friends at Robinson Dental.