This Week We Feature Young Professional Shermiker Nibbs-Samuel
This week’s young professional is a moulder, shaping the lives of persons from an early age as a primary school teacher. Virgin Islands News Online proudly presents dedicated, hard working and inspirational Shermiker Nibbs-Samuel.
Shermiker is now in her eighteenth year of teaching, with ten of those years being spent at the Ebenezer Thomas Primary School where she currently works. This week’s Young Professional disclosed that she started working at the BVI High School (now Elmore Stoutt High School) in the Home Economics Department.
Shermiker said she loves to work with her hands and loves to cook as well. She is the third offspring from a family of four sisters and six brothers and attended the very school that she now teaches at in Sea Cows Bay.
At first, Shermiker said, she wanted to be just like her elder sister, who started out as a Librarian but next became a Home Economics teacher, a path Shermiker sought to emulate in the same way.
She began working in 1995 immediately after graduating from High School and described her first experience as a teacher as being both difficult and fun at the same time. The challenge came especially in the fact that she was teaching students who were just about her age added to which, she also had a few friends in the classes she taught.
“I worked along with older teachers that were there, like Ms Davies, Ms Ruth Fraser…” Shermiker said, “they were in charge of the Home Economics Department…” She felt though, that after two years of trial and error, this ‘wasn’t cutting it’ for her and decided to move on. She then left to pursue higher learning at the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College but took some time off after her first year after giving birth to her first child, Kaheem in 1999.
She later completed her Associates Degree at the College and sought to build on this by signing up for her Bacherlor’s Degree with University of the Virgin Islands (UVI). This was not successful so she left the programme after deciding that things were not going as expected.
Finally, Shermiker embarked on a different approach, this time she selected a programme that offered her a Bachelor’s Degree with a concentration in Special Education through the University of the West Indies (UWI). “I actually chose that field because, being a young teacher, I noticed a lot of kids that had problems that I didn’t know about, you knew that something was wrong with them, but you couldn’t pick it up,” she explained.
It was a decision that was also shaped by her son, Kaheem’s, condition; since Shermiker realised that she needed to do something that would actually help her as well as her son, other students and also the country in general, she asserted.
“I love teaching,” the mother of three stated, “I love to see children succeed [and] if I am not teaching, I am still working with students…” The dedicated teacher also runs the after-school programme and dance group at the Ebenezer Thomas Primary School, in addition to which she also dedicates her summers to the summer programmes at the school.
She teaches cultural dances to the students predominantly, encouraging them in the art of folk tales similar to heritage dancers and also may pole (plait pole) dancing. According to Shermiker, “I am more inspirational in the cultural aspect because I find that is what is being lost, our culture is being lost… so a lot of the cultural aspects always meant a lot to me.”
She related that she was fortunate to have her grandparents with her while growing up, recently losing her grandmother, Mrs Enid Barry-Nibbs aka ‘Mama Nibbs’ at the age of 93 just last October.
Shermiker is good at making many of the traditional dishes such as Johnny cakes, sugar cakes and similar items that Virgin Islanders grew up loving in their homes and this causes her to be in high demand at various cultural activities that the school is involved in. “I think it’s cool to have our children learn some of these things, so that at least somewhere down the line we don’t just have other people’s culture just being our culture,” she added.
She is also an advisor to the EarlyAct club that was recently initiated at the school, “most likely if you see the school has something, you see my name attached to it,” Shermiker said, “the parents look forward to having someone that they’re sure with…” Asked whether she felt that she pushed herself too hard at times, she agreed but added, “at the same time, I don’t want to fail the kids… they look forward to doing these things and if someone isn’t there then it is as if [they] wanted to do these things and if no one is there, then [the opportunity] is lost.”
She explained that she does get support from other teachers at the school and it is not simply a one-woman act, but often when she decides to sit out of an event, Shermiker finds that her name is stil included on the list of persons to be involved in some activity or the other. She describes the school as a well-rounded one where everyone collaborates and helps out.
One of the most fulfilling aspects of teaching for her is to encounter students whom she taught years ago that relate to her the importance and instrumental role she had played in shaping their education. This brings much joy and one recent instance even caused a few tears as it came as a surprise for her. Her humility remains throughout it all though and she constantly reminds older past students not to call her Miss Nibbs as it makes her remember her age.
Shermiker also explained that she has a thing for troubled youths, as they were often the ones most misunderstood, especially those coming from broken homes. She related a story about a current student who has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (commonly referred to as ADHD) and the efforts she took to making him feel like an included member of the classroom after being moved from school to school in his earlier years. “He never used to do any kind of work, he would just harass [the other students]… get kicked out of class… [now] he’s an excellent leader...” she revealed.
She has also taught at every level of the school and draws on her years of experience to employ innovative methods of teaching, keeping the children interactive in a constructive fashion and encouraging them to share their ideas and be as responsible as they possibly can be. She recognises that all students are not the same and tries to bring a well-rounded approach to her teaching methods.
She advises young persons to always follow their dreams, especially before starting a family. “Make sure that you get all your degrees…” Shermiker advised, “your Associate’s, your Bachelor’s, Your Master’s, Doctorate…” She feels this is important so that persons can spend as much of their time with children as possible since most of the time parents seem to depend on teachers too much to actually fulfil their own role.
Shermiker feels that there can be a triangular role played in the moulding of children’s life that includes parents as well as teachers and not simply have most left up to the teacher. Parents, she said, should try to be there one hundred per cent for their children and also try to have good relationships with teachers as well.
“Teachers are actually responsible for nursing all other professions,” Shermiker explained, “without teachers there really wouldn’t be any other profession at all.” Much like her grandmother, 'Mama Nibbs', Shermiker seems well on her way to becoming a local icon herself.
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24 Responses to “This Week We Feature Young Professional Shermiker Nibbs-Samuel”
Absolutely gorgeous!