Just go with the flow

I’m a plumber. I’ve been working here about 36 years. I started off in grounds and then I transferred over to plumbing. I’m passionate about my job. I think back to when I first started and being young and a little wild. A lot of guys look to me now because I’m always low-key calm. I teach them to take it in stride; don’t get too crazy with everything. Just go with the flow. Take your time. There’s a time when you have to rush but you don’t have to always be in high gear all the time.

I’ve been with my wife since junior high. I married my childhood, well, my junior high school sweetheart. We have three kids. I have two grandkids—love them to death. They are the light of my life. They are good kids.

I graduated from First Colonial in 1980. Track used to be my sport in high school. As a matter of fact, I’m in the hall of fame at First Colonial. Carlton Hill and Ken Barto were my coaches. I was a sprinter and ran on a state championship 4×2 relay team. Our relay team was ranked like No. 3 in the nation at that time. That was one of my hidden talents. I was like Forest Gump. I had to run. When I was younger, I ran everywhere. I couldn’t walk without running. I plan on running a half marathon or an 8K one day. I’m going to start off low but I plan on doing it.

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I love writing

My favorite part of school are the morning rotations. You get to pick which one you want to do first and I mostly do writing first because I love writing on my laptop. I really like to write about my dad.

We have fun sitting and I really love the yoga balls that we have. They’re bouncy and sometimes they accidentally roll around. When we’re not using them we put them on a bucket so they won’t roll around. Sometimes the yoga balls are so close to the table that they roll underneath the table and are hard to get out.

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My friends are real nice

At school, my favorite thing here are the centers and the way we get to play, and my friends are real nice. I like them because they play with me a lot. Outside, we usually play tag and they try to catch me. Sometimes when I’m at home, I invite my friends over. I have two basketball hoops and we play basketball games.

What’s special about my friends is that they have the same things I have. Like, I like to play Pokémon; they like to play Pokémon. I have Pokémon cards. They have Pokémon cards. I play with my friends a lot. And my friend Harry, he loves fire trucks!

What do you love?

I love monster trucks and dirt bikes and stuff. Oh, and my friend Noah, he loves Pokémon. Two of my friends, here, their names are Mason and Evan. My friends Evan and Mason, they’re going to get me a fidget spinner, and when they get me a fidget spinner, I’m going to show them all the tricks I can do. And Noah, he is a real nice guy. He plays with me all the time.

What are you looking forward to in first grade?

I’m looking forward to seeing my friends. I’m hoping they are in the same class as me. So, I really want to see them there. And I can’t wait to see Mr. D.!

Our garden club

This started with a grant to grow a vegetable garden on the other side of the building. Then we moved it into the courtyard, where it is now, just to give the kids a lot of exposure to gardening since most of them live in apartments where they can’t garden. Our garden club gives them a chance to come out and be in nature and explore what’s out here. They see the life processes of our herbs and our fruits and vegetables as well. It’s exciting to see them, especially with the strawberry garden, remark “Oh look, it’s not ripe yet!” When they look at our produce garden they see things that become what we eat every day. We have our butterfly garden and we see the process from caterpillars all the way through to becoming butterflies.

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I would like to be a biomedical engineer

I like reading. The stories and the different perspectives of the characters are interesting. I’m rereading the Harry Potter series now.

I would like to be a biomedical engineer. Biomedical engineers use their knowledge of the medical field to help build instruments that help the patients. The subjects of science and math intrigue me, so I felt as though biomedical engineering was in my field because I also like helping people. The biology of how the body works sort of intrigues me, too. So I just thought biomedical engineering was really interesting.

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I like to be involved

I’ve been a competitive cheerleader since I was 4 and cheerleading is where I go to when I’m really stressed. It gets my mind off things. I’ve learned a lot from cheerleading, like teamwork and all of those building skills that I will need in the future. I’ll probably do it in college because that’s what I’ve focused my whole life on.

I like to be involved with a lot of things. Although cheer does take a lot of my time, I still like to be part of the SCA and NJHS. It helps me show people that you can be a part of your school. I like to inspire people to get more involved because for a lot of kids, in middle school, it’s all about the drama and I feel like being a part of those clubs have helped me get out of that.

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I’ll help in any way I can

I had been a docent at the Met in New York for 18 years taking children’s groups around doing art. Then we moved down to Charleston and I was doing the same thing at the Gibbes Museum, and I would also go out to Title I schools and teach art history once a month. Children and education have always been my passion. And then when we came here, I just decided, alright, what’s the closest school? And, being a New Yorker, I guess, I just walked in here and said, “If you need me, I’m here. I’ll help in any way I can.”

There is an atmosphere here of everybody being very supportive of the kids and it makes people like me, who come in from the outside, want to be a part of it and help out even more. I think that’s part of the problem; there may be people out there that could give their time and they just don’t know how. I walk here Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and I’m also here for the book fair and special events like field day. I just love to be around something that is dynamic like this. To give them the time, it just makes you happy because you think maybe it made that person’s day a little brighter.

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I like learning about science and social studies

The subject I like most in school is probably social studies or science. I really like social studies because it’s interesting to learn about what previously happened. It always feels nice learning about something that happened because it fills you with that feeling like, I just learned something new. They say history repeats itself so if that’s true, then it may happen again. I like science because it’s really fun to learn about things we wouldn’t talk about casually. Like you wouldn’t casually talk about how light works or how sound works. It’s really interesting getting to learn about all the stuff around us because science – light, sounds, states of matter – it’s all around us. It’s real interesting learning about it and it can help you see things in a new way.

And you were talking about interests after school… I wouldn’t really consider this an interest but I do enjoy the consumption of caffeine. Well, I really like coffee. It will wake you up and it has a pretty good taste. It allows me to do my homework because without it, it’s hard to do anything without it really.

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Dolphins and track

I want to work at the aquarium because my favorite animal is a dolphin and I really want to get more information about other sea animals. Dolphins are highly intelligent and sometimes I watch this dolphin on YouTube.

I actually have two jobs I want to do. My other job is being a track player because I’m in a ladies track group. I’m one of the best ones. I’m team captain. I’m working up to be in the Olympics.

Short or long distance?

I don’t know because I’m really good at both of them. I’m fast and I’m long lasting. Sometimes I go slow when I do long lasting, and then I can go really fast.

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My mission is to support the principals

I was in the Army eight years with the engineering branch building permanent construction all over the world: Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, South America. Roads, bridges, airfields, buildings—we had all the components of construction to do it. I went to VMI which had a military obligation after graduation. I had a three-year active, five-year reserve obligation. I did all eight years active because I was enjoying it and got out when we started to have kids. I got out as a captain. I decided to come back home and worked for a general contractor as a project manager. I’ve been with the division, it’s going on 17 years. I just like helping people and being part of that support piece that helps take care of the kids and gives them what they need to be successful. My mission is to support the principals. It’s what I like to do.

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It’s a wonderful job

I’m Nurse G. I’m Doctor G, at times. And some call me Miss Wendi. I answer to it all.

This is my fourth year full-time. I love it here. The kids are what make my day. Their little smiles after you “treat” them. Some of these kids just need a little extra T.L.C. Sometimes they need, I’ll call it, “a brain break.” I love that you can spend the five minutes with them and sometimes they’re just having a really bad day – maybe dad’s deployed or mom’s deployed or traveling.

I also like the fact that at this age you’re molding them and teaching them. You’re teaching them how to own responsibility for themselves. You see the kids grow up and become young adults; we’ll use that loosely at this age because they are still pretty young. But I think it’s neat to see how they grow up and to see the neediness change and maturity slowly develop.

I love my day. It’s a different pace, but there are its challenges every day. You have a lot of health concerns in a school that keep you on your toes because you never know when something’s going to happen. It’s rewarding at the end of the day seeing these kids smile and to share the love and the care and the compassion.

It’s a wonderful job.

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Brain breaks and video games

I like having brain breaks and doing centers. There are iPads and there is this really cool time game I like playing where, if you get five stars, you get a prize to do the fish tank. In the beginning you get tap the fish that you want and you try to get all 50 fish. You have to make the time. We have four telling time games on the iPad.

Why do you think it’s important to give your brain a break?

So it can take a rest.

And when I get home for the weekend, I like to play with my friends outside. I also like to go on my tablet and play Angry Birds and watch videos. I like to watch shows on Netflix. And I do Crossy Road and Slither.io. On Crossy Road, you get to unlock characters and there’s like this machine and it’s like a mystery. You don’t know what character you’re going to get. And you get to tap on the screen and you have to try and get a lot of jumps.  If a car runs over you, you die and you get a new turn. And in Slither.io, there are snakes and you get to choose them and you click the “ok” button and then you get to move. The other guys have to try to bump into you and you get to take them and get longer. It’s really cool.

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Respecting electricity

I’ve been with the division for 28 years. It’s been a great, wonderful 28 years here. I’ve learned a whole lot, especially respecting electricity. We deal with high voltage and low voltage electricity. You learn not to play around with it and that you have to take it in a serious manner every time. My job is to make sure people are comfortable. My main concern is the kids and the teachers in their rooms. I remember when I started here, we had to get a ladder and climb up just to read the temperature on the ceiling and what’s coming out of the vent. Now it’s so much easier. We can view it on the computer. We don’t have to look for the tallest ladder in the school just to check the temperature and air flow out of the vent. It’s come a long way.

What do you enjoying doing when you’re not at work?

A lot of different things. I really enjoy being outdoors. Gardening is one of my favorite things and being out in the water or riding my motorcycle. And family, helping mom as much as I can. I enjoy diving and snorkeling. That’s one of my favorite things, but there’s nothing around here. I grew up in the Philippines islands and I learned the ocean is like a playground. You wait for the tide to go out and the tide to come in, and you’ve got the biggest swimming pool in town. It’s just such a beautiful different planet being under the water.

I like math and science

I like math and science. I like math because I get good grades in it, and if I get good grades then I get to do fun things. And if I don’t do fun things then all I have to do is watch TV when my room’s clean, and that’s boring.

What are ‘fun things’ for you?

I like to swim in my pool when it’s sunny. I like to draw. I like to watch videos on my phone or tablet and read sometimes. Watch a movie. Having fun with my family members, even though we don’t always have much time together. That’s really it.

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