First Person is where Chalkbeat features personal essays by educators, students, parents, and others thinking and writing about public education.
As AI dominates the education zeitgeist, I think it’s time to highlight an effective teaching tool as tried and true as a Ticonderoga No. 2 pencil: high-quality IRL relationships with students.
I learned this first — and best — from my high school Spanish teacher, who, as the matriarch of the Spanish department, went simply by “Señora.”


