25 Years

My mom taught elementary school for decades and I often helped her set up her classroom and visit her in her element. I tried to go into journalism during college and a bit after graduation, but the classroom called me or my mom pushed me. Either way, in March 1998, I became an emergency-certified teacher to two classes of 6th graders and three classes of 8th graders at Luis P. Untalan Middle School. Welcome Ms. Juvy Gao-ay to the profession! With a degree in  English and Communications, I went into a Language Arts classroom and was expected to discipline this team of teenagers that had already had multiple Language Arts teachers that school year. I was just 22 years old, standing less than five feet, and I had to become an instant disciplinarian! I stood my ground against these teenagers and, as you can tell, I survived and continued to teach!

Still as an emergency-certified teacher, I went where there was an opening and the following school year, I was called down south— driving two hours back and forth from where I lived up north in Yigo. I taught Language Arts & Reading for two years at Inarajan Middle School, as a minority Filipino teacher in a school that had a predominantly CHamoru student population. It was challenging for sure. Additionally, SY 1998-1999 was the year all emergency-certified teachers at GDOE were let go in December 1998 as the government's cost-cutting measure. It was the first time I felt dispensable. I made sure to start taking courses at the University of Guam to become fully certified. I was called back to IMS for SY 1999-2000, and I finally completed a full year with my students. 

I look at the students in these photos now and I wonder which of them I've seen in our community. They would be in their 30's now with careers and families of their own. It was a challenging time, but I enjoyed getting to know all my students and hearing their stories. It's this mutually respectful relationship with my students that have kept me in this profession for over 25 years.

When I became a fully-certified, permanent teacher of the Guam Department of Education, I transfered back to Luis P. Untalan Middle School, the school of excellence in the central part of the island. I became a 6th grade Language Arts teacher in the Cheetah team. My classroom was at the back of the school, and I look back at these years as valuable learning experiences. Disciplining and teaching middle schoolers takes loads of patience—and years of experience to understand how! I was fortunate to have a supportive team of colleagues, as well as passionate and caring administrators and staff, to help me survive and learn to love teaching middle school!