Educators are some of the most important and influential members of any community and that goes for substitute teachers as well.
Most people have a teacher that they will never forget. In a lot of ways substitute teachers are unsung heroes within a school.
Often times we forget to remember substitute teachers, but not this week.
Killeen ISD is taking this week to show their appreciation for substitutes like Demetrius Lattier, who decided just over a month ago to give teaching a try and has no intention of looking back.
"I thought it was going to be something that I didn’t want to do at first and I was like 'Ah I'll try it', but I actually enjoy it - I really do.” said Demetrius Lattier, substitute math teacher.
Ms. Lattier is not the only substitute teacher at Liberty Hill that happened to dive into the teaching pool this year.
Her fellow substitute Mr. Folks is right there with her.
"Right now I was actually in the middle of changing jobs and it made it easy pick it up and go and get the sub-application and everything,” said Anfernee Folks, substitute english teacher.
Folks and Lattier are new to the game. But there is one longtime substitute special education teacher at Liberty Hill, Alice Williams, that everyone knows as grandma.
"One of my babies years ago asked me if he could call me grandma because he didn’t have one," said Williams. "I said you most definitely can. So, all the other kids started calling me grandma. If you go through this school and you call me Ms. Willams I probably wouldn’t answer because everybody in here calls me grandma.”
Grandma loves her work and the kids she works with, and like a true grandma, you better not mess with the students she calls her babies.
”Kindness, gentleness, and love," said grandma. "We do not yell at our kids, we do not handle them rough, we do not shake them I don’t like that. I am a very calm person but if you want to get me upset, mess with one of my babies and it’s on.”
Grandma is perfectly happy being a sub, but this experience has lit the teaching torch for Folks and Lattier.
Substitute teachers are just as hard-working and dedicated as full-time teachers and that is what Killeen ISD is taking this week to show.
