Teacher reaches students across dining table
Published: December 14, 2007
Shortridge Middle School’s assistant principal watched in puzzlement this year when the new sixth-grade teacher walked into the cafeteria, sat down among the students and unpacked his lunch.
Michael Sullivan’s confusion turned to amazement as he watched the 35-year-old teacher begin chatting with students. And as the new teacher spent more lunch breaks with students, he became adept at quieting rowdy students with his outlandish jokes.
Most teachers view lunchtime as a chance to retire to the sanctuary of the teacher’s lounge, and few are even assigned lunch duty anymore. The Indianapolis Public Schools contract with teachers even guarantees them a half-hour lunch period that’s student-free.
Johnny Camden has never seen things that way. He seems to draw as much energy from students — those in his classroom as well as his teenage lunch companions — as they get laughter from his humor.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Sullivan, who has worked at several area schools and never seen teachers eating with students. “It’s one of the best ways for them to get a bead on their kids.”
Several other Shortridge teachers have begun eating in the cafeteria, too.
Camden’s example has energized some of the staff, Sullivan said, and reminded them that they work with students who are real people and not just a test score to be raised.
And the students in the cafeteria respond to the attention. When Camden started rotating to different tables around the lunchroom, three students decamped from their usual spot and followed him.
He banters with students, asking them about their weekends and their families, their studies and their hobbies. Students don’t even flinch when he sits down to join them.
“When we’re feeling bad, he’ll come sit with us and make us laugh,” said Melissa Roe, a seventh-grader.
As one might expect, though, having the teacher around sometimes crimps the conversation. Camden tries to be respectful and sneaks away when he senses he’s impeding the conversation.
“It’s kind of weird with a grown-up talking with you like you’re their friends,” said Myhra Zarate, a seventh-grader.
And Camden does indeed treat the students like friends. He shares anecdotes about his daughter’s performance in a church play and talks about his wife’s pregnancy with their second child.
He aims to connect with the children, he said, on a human level.
His classroom holds about 10 sixth-graders who have been held back more than once and are targeted for special efforts to help them advance. Most of the district’s sixth-grade students are in elementary schools.
Camden said his students are bright but may learn in unconventional ways.
“I think every child is capable of learning,” he said. “They all have different learning styles, and their styles aren’t always met by mainstream teaching. I try to think out of the box.”
His classroom feels chaotic, with small clusters of students spread out all over the place, some in seats, some lying down, some roaming the room. But all of them are doing schoolwork, and Camden has control.
He jokes with students as he walks around the room, calling for a boy to “act your age, not your shoe size” and praising students who are working well together.
“Mr. Camden, he finds a way to teach us in a way we can understand,” said Christian Taylor, a standout writer in the class.
Camden abounds with energy and dramatic facial expressions, his eyes popping wide and eyebrows arching high to make a serious point one moment or punctuate a joke the next.
Students say his style is key to their willingness to pay attention.
“(He’s) the best teacher I’ve had,” said Raven Owens. “He’s fun, and he likes to play.”
Each day around 10:20 a.m. when his students eat lunch, he takes that same attitude with him. He watches out for them in the cafeteria, but he rarely sits with them.
He recommends the cafeteria’s chicken and fish sandwiches and the green beans but says that otherwise he usually brings his own food.
Camden will try to head for hot spots in the lunchroom, seeking to make connections with a wide range of students.
“I try to have one-on-one discussions with them, joke around with them,” he said. “I just try to get in tune with them.
“I listen a lot.”
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