Personal Meditations on Teacher Appreciation Week ending in Mother's Day

In therapy, it came up that I should never stop sharing my story. It is a bit of discomfort when ancestral voices also tell me this is also your responsibility. In my scholarship, I have learned that this story is uniquely mine, and still, it belongs so much to people who have transcended on. This week is a unique celebration of Teacher's Appreciation concluding in Mother's Day. I am so proud of me, Shapel for being a scholar mother.

Shapel M. LaBorde, Maja Morsing, Ginger Mayhew, David T.Hansen, and Dan R. Davis April 2026 Cohort Final Doctoral Pro Seminar

As a Black mother not quite 35 years old, I look back in awe at the blessed life, I have lived. I have the unique opportunity to be cemented in a career as a licensed pedagogue/ educator to multilingual learners as well as native speakers of English in NYCPS. I have had this career for over 10 years! I first taught in TESOL/TEFL professionally abroad while living in Vietnam for a year. I lived alone and it was a very beautiful and formative experience. I think of this time fondly and gratefully as I journeyed as a single mother.

A collage of various experiences of me as Educator in the classroom.

I have been changed by families, students, maps and terrains, and stories through my educational career. It would be God to allow me to not only break barriers but also thrive in spaces my foremothers and forefathers dreamed of. And to do it with my daughter! My God. As a mother from a complicated mothering experience, I am literally living a dream. My daughter has had the experience of going to my school and now going to an all Black school. She excels. And yet she is challenged and transformed.

What has been revolutionary is watching how she moves with ease through the institution. I started my journey in TC when Sage Ali was 2 years old and we just lost Grandma Babe in the same month as I was to also go back to school and back to the building from COVID as a Tenured professional. My motherhood journey has been PAINFUL. From her other parent, from his family, from my own family, from lack of understanding and no safety net. I am extremely grateful to my educator friends for getting me through my second Master's! I am also appreciative to my now fiancé who has never taken away from my scholarship, who would sit on the phone while I was in Zoom class sometimes. And now to have just concluded my last Doctoral Pro Seminar and move into Dissertation Proposal Workshop this Fall is a dream. A dream. ❤

A collage of me as Scholar at TC as a Scholar Mama.

I manifested this with the most delusion ever. The biggest and sheerest fortitude. The faith of a mustard seed. I am truly truly grateful to God, the friends who support me from a far, the friends who never questioned my heart, the family who decided to heal more than hurt, the people who just stayed away if they could not contribute positively to this experience. I am thankful for the people who are authentic and aligned with me and I with them. Naturally and seasonally. I am just grateful my God and Ancestors have been waymakers in my life when I can only see with my Mind's Eye and Feel through Spirit.

Thank you to the children. Thank you to the little girl in me. The dreamer and visionary. I am so appreciative for it all, I have gained discernment and wisdom for growth unmatched. God is truly so good. #HappyTeachersDay #BlackEducator #BlackPhD