EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

COACH BOWEN: My whole thing is if I can understand their thought process or their meaning of why they’re doing something, and again, academically or behaviorally, to be honest with you. But if I can understand the why behind it, then I have a way to adjust as a teacher to be able to help reach every learner instead of just being like, “We all think this way. It’s all going to be done this way,” kind of method.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Hello everybody, and welcome back to Inspiring Teachers: The Honored Podcast, where we shine a spotlight on life-changing teachers across the country. I’m Hannah, your podcast host, and our podcast is brought to you by Honored, which is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to honoring and elevating great teachers nationwide. Our mission is to inspire and retain great teachers, keeping them in the classroom as long as possible. Every month of the school year at Honored, we select an exceptional educator in the United States to be the recipient of the Honored National Teaching Award. Each Honoree, as we call them, receives a $5,000 cash reward, and we then tell the story on our website and our social media platforms of how that teacher has impacted their students’ lives. To learn more about our organization, you can go to our website at honored.org. While you’re there, if you have a teacher you would like to recognize, you can nominate them at honored.org/nominate.

We are so excited to have you listening in on another Honoree podcast episode. Today, we are joined by Rachel Bowen, a Math teacher as well as a volleyball, basketball, and track coach at Warren Middle School in Forney, Texas. She was nominated for this award by her student, Ethan Hernandez. To help share the impact of Rachel Bowen’s teaching. We are joined today by Ethan and Ethan’s mom, Jessica.

Before we dive into Rachel Bowen’s story, we are excited to kick off our Honoree episode with our special segment, ‘Teachers Who Inspired,’ which is featured at the beginning of each Honoree episode. Here, we invite well-known individuals to share a story about a teacher who had a lasting impact on their lives. These stories remind us that behind every great achievement, there’s often an inspiring teacher who believed in their potential.

Today, we’re thrilled to have our segment feature Pulitzer Prize, Grammy, Emmy, Tony Award-winning songwriter, actor, producer, and director, Lin-Manuel Miranda, who shares about a teacher who left an incredible impact on his journey. This audio is credited to CBS Mornings. You can find more information on the source of this audio in the episode description.

LIN MANUEL-MIRANDA: Dr Herbert’s the reason I’m sitting here talking to you. I wrote a musical instead of doing my homework for his class in eighth grade. He said, “You could be good at this, and you should stop hibernating in my class. And you should be doing this.” Because we had a student-written theater club at my high school, and Rembert’s the one who nudged me in that direction, and he sort of changed my life forever with that.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: We are so grateful to include that wonderful audio for our ‘Teachers Who Inspired’ segment. Throughout the rest of the episode, we’ll share Rachel Bowen’s story and the amazing impact she has on her students. To start us off, you’ll hear from Rachel Bowen, or Coach Bowen as called by her students, who shares what led her to teaching as she found her inspiration in multiple past teachers. 

COACH BOWEN: I knew I was going to be a teacher from day one. There’s nothing else I wanted to do. If somebody asked, “What’s your backup plan?” To this day, I don’t really have a backup plan. This is what I truly feel I was called to do. And then so going up from a kid playing school all the time to third grade, I had a teacher named Mrs. Zader. Through some of the struggles in life that I had, she was a lover and a nurturer. And she’d give me these little pigs. I remember pig coupons, and she’ll bring me into my classroom and be like, “Come in here. You can have a Pop-Tart. Come in here, I’ll help you with this.” And then it even got to where I would take some of my younger siblings to her class. And then I had a teacher, one who was probably not as nice, but I was always taught that everybody’s put into your life for a reason, and it can help you in either way. It may help you grow to become stronger, to be able to learn how to deal with some trials, maybe like that that teacher had given me. And so that still made me want to be a teacher. I still wanted to be a teacher, even learning through her. And then finally, my freshman year, my Algebra teacher, her name was Mrs. Lock. I always loved math. I wasn’t phenomenal at it, but I loved school. And then she made me fall in love with it. A lot of the characteristics that Ethan would probably describe with me. She was very strict; we had to do this, we had homework, but she explained it in a way that I was like, “This is so easy. Why do people not like math?” And so then that made me think, I want to be that teacher because math is the subject that everybody’s like, “Oh my gosh, I have to go to math.” And so then I was like, I want to be a mixture of both of those teachers that made an impact on my life.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: To learn more about Coach Bowen’s incredible impact on her students, we spoke with her student, Ethan, who talks about what led him to nominate her for our award. Before Coach Bowen’s class, math never quite clicked for him. But through Coach Bowen’s teaching, everything changed as he gained confidence and a deeper understanding of the material. 

ETHAN HERNANDEZ: So I nominated Coach Bowen because she was that math teacher for me as well. She really made it click. 

ETHAN HERNANDEZ: And I would just get by in all the other ones, I would be like, “Yeah, I can do this. I can do this.” But Coach Bowen made me understand why the process that we’re doing works. It was a take on it that I’d never really understood in math. And I was like, “Whoa. This is insane. I’ve never realized this before.” And it was the coolest thing ever. And she is also one of the only teachers that I’ve seen who has made students who have not wanted to do work, or dropped a couple of assignments, didn’t do anything, took the zeros because they didn’t care. She made them actually care about math, and they would turn in their work, and all of a sudden they started getting one hundreds. And it’s really my closest friends, they really wanted to get one hundreds and they wanted to be that great student, but they couldn’t understand it. And then to see them become that student in Coach Bowen’s class was just amazing. And there’s no other teacher that I’ve had until this point. And I really wanted to do something to show how much I appreciated what she did for me and my friends. And this is what I saw.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Coach Bowen has a gift for instilling hard work and perseverance in her students. She often quotes Kobe Bryant, reminding her students that great things come from hard work and that struggling with something doesn’t mean we need to give up. She also teaches accountability and self-awareness through her yellow card process, where students reflect on why they didn’t complete assignments. This process helps her understand the root issues of what her students are facing and teaches them to recognize their hurdles so they can get to the next level.

COACH BOWEN: I think it’s a buy-in, to be honest with you. It doesn’t start that way. I am tough, I’m probably strict, but I feel like we think of failure to be good at something means we give up. And that’s why I love that quote. It’s like a failure to be good at something doesn’t mean we give up; it’s that we have to persevere through it.

COACH BOWEN: I’ve had several conversations that I’m not giving up on you, and I’m not going to stop. I will find a way to get every single thing from you. I need the same in return. I need them not to give up on themselves. And so I think that’s something that we have to teach the kids, and we have to train the kids to understand that, just because something gets tough in life. And it’s not even just school for me. Yes, of course, it’s my classroom. But in life, once something’s thrown your way that’s a struggle doesn’t mean that we have to completely give up on everything. It’s where do we find that to persevere through it, so that we can reach the next level, and then it’s celebrating it. Hard work pays off is a big thing that I go on. But it’s an internal thing that once you look down and you’re like, “Wow, my hard work paid off.” That’s a reward that’s irreplaceable. It’s not worth the amount of money. It’s not worth the amount of a gift you can get. It’s like, “Wow, I worked hard and I did that. Are you kidding me? That’s just crazy.” And I want the kids to feel that. And so that’s where I do it. And then I want them to buy into it. I do this thing: if a kid doesn’t do their work, they have to fill out a yellow card for me. I want to know the why. And I tell them, if it was I was too lazy to do it, write “I was too lazy to do it.” But it’s really letting me know what your why is. Why are we not getting to that next level, and then me diving deep with them to figure out what it is. Is it that you didn’t understand it? Is something going on in life? And figuring out, though going back to the hard work is, once you know your why, then we can start pushing forward past that, persevere through that, to get to the next level.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Building on Coach Bowen’s ability to teach students the value of hard work, Ethan reflects on the lessons that have stuck with him. He talks about how, if students know they will be out of school, she encourages them to complete the work ahead of time so they don’t have to catch up when they are back. He also expands on how Coach Bowen’s yellow card process taught him about honesty and taking accountability. For Ethan, he’s carried these lessons into his high school years and will continue to carry them throughout his future. 

ETHAN HERNANDEZ: I would go on theatre trips and we would miss school for it because we were competing. And she’s the only teacher that I’ve had do this, unless I specifically went and asked a teacher. But she would have me get my work done before I left, rather than catch up after I came back. And whenever I first heard this, I was like, “Oh my gosh, I have to do double the amount of work for the week before. This is going to be terrible. I already have to prepare for theatre and all this stuff. This is not the way to do it.” And then the first time I did it, I was like, “Okay, I’m kind of getting used to it. I think I can handle this.” And then whenever we went on the trip, and I’m so tired, and I come back to school, and all the other classes, they hand me assignments upon assignments upon assignments. Like I just competed last Saturday, I’m exhausted. Except I get to Coach Bowen’s class, which was arguably the most, like, I have to be on top of this class. I didn’t get anything. I was right on track with all my other students, and I could hop right back into the class and not feel like I had to catch myself up, and I had to go into overdrive after I was already exhausted. And so that was amazing to teach me work ethic. Whenever I’m missing school, instead of doing it after I come back, but to do it before I leave, it will help me in life. And I take that to band practice too, because I sometimes, maybe I am not on time, and I’ll miss rehearsal, or I have to be absent for something. Instead of learning afterwards, it’s to learn beforehand. And I do this a lot in anything. Anytime I miss for any of my activities, it’s to do my work before, then after is one thing that she instilled in me. And she taught me honesty, which was a hard thing in eighth grade because I was always like, “I don’t ever want to turn in a yellow card. I don’t ever want a late assignment. I want to be the perfect kid.” And there were times when I slipped up because everyone slips up, and I did not want to turn in that yellow card. I wanted to do everything but turn in that yellow card. And I took a step back, and I was like, “It isn’t worth all this. It’s more valuable to my character to turn in this yellow card and realize where I messed up and to look back on that, rather than to try to cover it up and have it mess me up in the future.”

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Coach Bowen’s positive impact on Ethan was also witnessed by his mom, Jessica. In our conversation, Jessica shares more about how Coach Bowen cultivated an environment where her son was able to thrive independently and was encouraged to rise to a higher level.

JESSICA HERNANDEZ: Coach Bowen has an incredible way of communicating. You receive emails once a week as a parent. And it’s a tough age where you’re trying to instill in the kids independence. And so parents are there and we’re supporting, but we’re taking more of a background role. So I’m checking Skyward once a week to make sure that there aren’t assignments missing. But those communications that came through, I knew exactly what day, what time, anything that he needed to succeed, it was listed in the emails.

JESSICA HERNANDEZ: And I think seeing her dedication through even handling tough peers was a great example for Ethan. You know, dealing with lots of different personalities and students, and then you continue on through the high school years with a lot of the same personalities and people. And so watching how a teacher models that behavior and helps them rise to a higher standard. It helped Ethan handle, I think, people too, and see how you can help people to succeed who are your own peers.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: What sets Coach Bowen apart is her ability to connect with and teach students of all abilities. She takes the time to really get to know each student and listens to the academic conversations they have with their peers to learn from them. Learning from her students is just as important as her students learning from her. By giving them the space to share feedback and by carefully reviewing their work to understand their thought process, she adapts her teaching to meet individual needs so every student can succeed.

COACH BOWEN: For me, a key thing is relationships. Like really, truly getting to know your kids and where they’re at. Everybody’s at a different spot in life. Ethan even talked about, he was good at math and knew this. But even knowing what he wanted to do, he had a goal to take a geometry class during the summer. And knowing what their goals are is key, but also it’s really the walking around and the conversations you’re having. All of my students sit in groups. I’m a big partner work because I love to have collaboration and communication. I think being able to grow as a teacher, you’re going to be able to help grow students. And hearing the students say, “Well, I did it this way. That’s not really the way she said to do it, but it will work.” Or listening to a kid who’ll say, “Will this always work? “And sometimes the answer is, ‘No, ironically, you got the right answer.” But then also being open as a teacher, like, “Hmm, a great way to do it. I don’t know, maybe I need to go research that.” At the end of every single year, all of my students will write me a letter, and they get to choose, sign your name or don’t sign your name to it, because I want truly honest feedback. And in this letter, they have to tell me things that they liked about my classroom, whether it was classroom management, classroom strategies, the work that we did, and things that they disliked. And again, the name sign or don’t sign because the honesty is the best part. And I feel that in order to get students to grow, we as educators have to be willing to grow. And so I have roughly 120 to 160 kids in just my classroom. And taking the time to read each one of those letters, and I’ll keep a spreadsheet over there on the side. I’m like, “Oh, that’s a good idea. Oh, that’s a good idea. Ooh, they did not like that. Take that out.” And so, as I know I have new kids coming the following year, some of the strategies of just being able to grow, to be like, “Oh, maybe that will help that learner.” Because sometimes your learners do stay the same in the way of how they learn. And then I’m a big person about, if you give work, make it meaningful. And so when they do work, looking at it. I’m not able to write on every single child’s paper, but looking at some of their work and seeing where they made their mistake. It’s like, “Okay, was it just a negative area? What was your process?” And then, like I mentioned earlier, is going by, the why. A lot of times, if a kid’s really strong, struggling in my class, I’ll be like, “Well, why did you do that that way?” I know that’s sometimes a hard question to answer.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Through hearing about Ethan’s days at school, his mom, Jessica, found herself in awe of Coach Bowen. As a parent, she knew that Ethan had a teacher he could count on to show up, challenge him, and support him academically and personally. What has stuck with her is how, even though Ethan is now in high school, the lessons he learned have continued to shape his success and character. 

JESSICA HERNANDEZ: I loved hearing Ethan come home. Just, “How was your day?” We would go over, how did your day go today? And he would say whether he was needing to get going on an assignment because he was heading to a lot of activities, such as his theater competitions, or if he was just in awe of something. And he would say, “Wow, I can’t believe Coach Bowen handled that, and she’s still coming every day, and she’s there, and she’s patiently answering every question.” I think I loved Ethan telling me, “Oh yeah, if I have a question, I know Coach Bowen will get back with me in less than an hour to answer my question outside of the classroom.” Which is incredible when you have a huge classroom and all the students that you’re you’re monitoring. But I loved that Ethan remembered even some of the quotes that she shared. And now, even to this day, for him in high school, he can recite that quote from Kobe Bryant. That’s a very powerful message for him.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Coach Bowen’s impact was not just evident through Ethan, but through the classroom environment as a whole. As Ethan and his peers entered Coach Bowen’s class, his friends were in the mindset of believing they weren’t capable of comprehending the concepts. However, as the year went on, Ethan noticed that his friends started to grasp an understanding of math. He also noticed how Coach Bowen has an incredible ability to meet students where they are, so she can help those who feel behind catch up, while still pushing others forward, so no one feels left behind.

ETHAN HERNANDEZ: I’ve had these really close friends, and we had the same amount of classes. And we were in classes together because COVID happened and everything. So we were all learning together, and we were all at different stages. And I would be there, and I would be like, “Yeah, this is how you do this and this.” And they’re like, “I don’t understand anything you’re saying.” And I’m like, “Oh, oh, okay.” And then we get to middle school, it gets a little distant because middle school was way bigger than any elementary I got to. And then we get to Coach Bowen’s class, and we’re in that mindset of I just do what I’m told, and if it’s right, it’s right, it’s wrong, it’s wrong. And as the year went on, they were like, “I’m kind of actually understanding how this works for the first time.” And I was like, “Oh my goodness, I’m so happy.” Because these are my close friends that I’ve been waiting for years, because I know they’re capable of it, but they don’t think they’re capable of it. And it’s getting them out of that mindset that Coach Bowen is so good at. And they don’t even know that she’s doing that, which is the best part. And so as we’re getting towards the end of the year and they have gone from eighties to one hundreds, and they’re turning in work on time, and they’re understanding every concept, and they’re doing great, and they’re becoming one of the top students. It’s so great to see everyone where they started at the beginning of the class and now where they’re ending, and how much their concept of math and their understanding of it has changed. And it impacted the classroom environment because in all the other classes, where, in like sixth grade, whenever everyone’s like, “I don’t really know what’s going on, I kind of just do what I do,” the teacher really had to focus on those students. Well, let’s reteach this, let’s reteach this. Which is a good thing, but all the other students that are up there, and they’re like, “I understand this. It’s getting really boring for us.” They kind of get stuck at that standstill level.

ETHAN HERNANDEZ: And it really made the classroom environment. When I walked into that classroom, I knew that I was going to learn something that day. And whether I fully understood it or whether I didn’t, I knew I was going to eventually. So, I think this has to be mentioned is that Coach Bowen, in her class with like 36 kids, we would turn in assignments every single day, and she would have a stack, like this tall. And she had a teacher aide in there. And we would all turn it in, but by the end of the day, almost every single day, we had all of our assignments back, corrected and graded. And this is all while she’s teaching, all while she’s helping us do our assignments, and all while we’re learning, she is getting through this ginormous stack of paper. And then she gets even more back because if we get it back and it’s not right, we continue to correct it until it’s right. And so it’s this never-ending cycle. And I’m still amazed at how she does it every single class period with this giant stack of paper. So it’s amazing.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: During our conversation, Coach Bowen mentioned that it’s the students who keep her going. Ever since she became a teacher, it has been her goal to leave a lasting impact on her students, not just academically, but personally as well. She expands on the moments where she has felt empowered by her students to continue teaching, knowing the impact she has made on them has carried throughout their lives. 

COACH BOWEN: Kids are what get you through it. You can get caught up in the politics of education and the new TEKS and the new concepts and the new laws and all that’s changing. I know it sounds so cliché to say it’s the students that keep you going, but it is. And there are two things I really wanted to talk on. All of my life, I said I wanted to be a teacher. But not that I want to be a teacher. I wanted to be a teacher that years after kids had me, they would be like “Coach Bowen is my person. Not only did she help me in math, but she helped me become a better person or the skills that she gave to me helped me through college, or helped me through life.” And I say it like this: the letters that I get throughout the school year, Thanksgiving, you get the thankful letters, Teacher Appreciation, those are the ones that get you day to day. You love them, right? You’re like, “Okay, I’m ready to conquer tomorrow.” But then there was also, we lost a young lady due to a tragic accident several years ago, and I knew her mom. And her mom had messaged me, and she said, “We did a scholarship application for this young lady.” And she said, “Everyone I got talked about you in it, but one.” So every scholarship she got, but one, talked about me, and I was like, “Wow.” In such a tragic moment in their lives, where I never would have ever thought that anybody would have thought of me, it was still that moment that I helped them. And so I’m like, “Okay, maybe I’m doing something right.” And then this moment right here. This moment will hold a place in my heart forever. The fact that Ethan sits down and he’s like, “Hey, what can I do to let Coach Bowen know she’s appreciated?” And he goes through all of the work. He took the time to do that, and just listening to the words that he’s saying right now, I can’t even express my gratitude. And it’s beyond gratitude, it’s a feeling of love and caring and passion. And maybe it is all the hard work pays off, going back to the Kobe quote. That perseverance through some of the challenges that even maybe I had in life, or maybe Ethan, or anybody has had, and you look back and you’re like, “Wow.” So I guess, to summarize, it is the letters that I get now that get me through day to day, but things like this nomination are what get me from year to year. 

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Thank you so much for listening and joining us today to learn more about Rachel Bowen, our September Honoree and recipient of the Honored National Teaching Award. To read more about her story, you can visit our website at honored.org or click the link in the episode description. If you have a teacher who you want to recognize and nominate for our teaching award, you can head to honored.org/nominate to recognize a teacher today. Thanks again for listening, and make sure to tune in next month to hear the incredible story of our October Honoree.