LOVE-FILLED, PURPOSE-DRIVEN Teaching

Moss Point’s Candace Batiste Encourages Students to Persevere

By Adrienne Minor

What does an engaging classroom look like? For many, student engagement is a carrot-and-stick operation, using external motivators to coerce students to learn the content and gain the skills to become successful citizens. For Candace Batiste, a native of Moss Point and a Family and Consumer Sciences Instructor at Moss Point’s

Career and Technical Center, achieving student engagement and positive student achievement begins with knowing her purpose and connecting with her students.

“All children are teachable,” said Batiste, “With love, care, and guidance you can redirect any child. I don’t judge but look at the inner parts of why a stu- dent acts a particular way. Once you build that safety and trust relationship with your students, they are then eager to learn and accept redirection easily.”

This philosophy stems from her upbringing. Batiste said that her parents were instrumental in instilling in her intangible values, such as the importance of “family, love, honesty, pa- tience, integrity, standing up for what is right and striving to be one’s best.” These are the values she imparts to her students and to her colleagues.

Kamyrn Tart, a Business, Marketing, and Finance teacher at Moss Point’s Career and Technical Education Center, describes how Batiste impacted her as a first-year teacher. “She has willingly and graciously shown me the ropes on how to be successful in the world of education,” said Tart. “She is one in a million.”

But Batiste’s journey to teaching did not start in the classroom. It started with softball.

“I was really good at teaching players how to play softball while also building a great connection with them,” she said.

Ethan Porter, a Physical Education and Health teacher, speaks to the impact Batiste has made on himself and others.

“[Batiste] is one of the most selfless people I have ever worked with. She goes above and beyond the standard expectations for her students and student-athletes. She is trustworthy, loyal and dependable.”

Her experiences with coaching and her undeniable ability to connect with students guided Batiste closer and closer to her purpose in teaching. Starting inhome childcare led to teaching at Jefferson Head Start, Escatawpa Elementary School and finally at Moss Point High School (MPHS).

A graduate of MPHS herself, Batiste makes it her priority to prepare students for adulthood and post-graduate life through relevant experiences.

“The most creative but effective way to engage my students,” she said, “is to provide them with real-life hands-on activities they can use in the real world.”

Her students make homemade pickles with cucumbers, budget using real money, simulate parenting skills with authentic diapers and formula and even conduct self-guided relationship case studies on their classmates. Helping students see that their goals for independence and self-sufficiency are tied to what they learn in her class opens the door to impactful student-centered learning.

This learning is not a one-way street, however. Batiste practices what it means to be a lifelong learner. One of the ways she continuously improves as a teacher is by allowing students to evaluate her practices and modeling how to receive and use constructive feedback to improve her instruction. Not only that, but she observes the teaching methods in other classrooms, gleaning from those practices to enhance her own.

Her consistent focus on improvement — whether in herself or those around her — has made a major impact on her students. One proud teacher moment was witnessing a student, who was on the verge of dropping out, graduate.

“He didn’t have much hope of staying in school and didn’t care about having a future until he came to my class,” she said.

Through encouragement, patience and love, she was able to create a safe place and provide a listening ear for this student, who experienced a dynamic shift in his life.

“He graduated high school, started working a full-time job, bought a car and eventually got a place of his own,” reports Batiste.

With Batiste, there are no illusions of perfection. When challenges abound, Batiste attributes her motivation to God. What grounds her is “knowing that He has placed me in their lives for a reason and knowing there is a purpose behind it all,” she said.

“Secondly, the students motivate me when they walk into the classroom with their big smiles, hugging me, and excited about being in my class. I don’t do it for the money. I don’t do it for the district. I do it for them. I care about them and love them.

That’s the motivation behind it all.”

Seeing the happy, healthy success of her students is the greatest reward for her: “That’s greater than any money or stipend anyone can offer me. I just want them to know every decision I made in the class was for the benefit of them — each one of them — not just one or two.”

Her advice to individuals coming from industry with hopes of teach- ing and inspiring students echoes her purpose-driven approach to teaching.

“When times get hard, always remember your why. Be flexible and always be willing to learn something new; whether it’s from your supervisor, coworker or students. It is much bigger than you; therefore, embrace the unfamiliar, embrace the change and do whatever it takes to meet the needs of the students,” Batiste said.