One Student’s Transformation From Handful To Hero

In this video:

(0:45) A-Train
(1:45) The First Day of Class
(3:30) The Beginning of Change
(5:10) Senior Year
(6:30) Post-Graduation

You’ve got ‘em, right? Right now in your school, you’ve got ‘em. It’s that one problem student. They’re a constant disruption in class and your teachers are constantly complaining about them.

Hi there, education heroes! I’m Dr. Debbie Emery, Leadership Process Executive at Flippen Group. Today I want to share with you a talk by the athletic director at Chinle High School in Arizona, and the 2012 Rural Teacher of the Year award winner, Shaun Martin. In this video, Shaun tells us how he set out to transform one of his students from the school’s biggest disruption to the school’s biggest hero.

Antonio, or ‘A-Train,’ was a freshman in high school who had Down syndrome and had been mute since birth. He would constantly disrupt the other students in his classes. The first day he came into Mr. Martin’s weight-lifting class, he wouldn’t shake his hand. He instead went straight in and spent the entire time with his nose in the corner of the room. Weeks later, as the other kids were lifting weights, Mr. Martin showed him how to do a pull-up, but he just put his nose back in the corner. Persistence paid off; at the end of the year and after constant encouragement, A-Train would finally look his coach in the eyes and was able to do seven pull-ups.

Time passed and it was the beginning of his junior year. A-Train came to class and when Mr. Martin stuck out his hand for a high-five, he responded by poking his hand with his index finger! Later in the year, he was poking his hand every day and even doing cling and snatch lifts. He became the class hero, with his classmates constantly encouraging him. On the last day of his junior year, he walked up to Mr. Martin, signed ‘Thank you,’ and actually spoke the word ‘Teacher’!

On the first day of Antonio’s senior year, he surprised Mr. Martin by walking up and shaking his hand. He was able to perform a bunch of big lifts that year and even be social with the other students. When he received his diploma, he exited the stage…singing out loud!

Even though he had graduated, A-Train came back to school the next year, ready to continue lifting in the weight room. Mr. Martin was able to arrange a paid position for him as a teacher’s assistant!

I really hope you enjoyed this transformational story about how Shaun Martin never gave up and changed this student’s life forever. Did you catch the part where the other students were cheering for him, too? That’s the kind of classroom we want all our teachers to have.

If you found this talk helpful, please do us a favor? Click the “Like” button to share it with your friends and also scroll down to the bottom of this post and answer this question: What have you done in your schools to deal with that one problem student, and did it work? Let’s continue the conversation below. We’d love to hear from you!

Take care and I’ll see you soon.