Bibi Angola

My name is Bibi Angola. I am the youngest of ten children. I am from a funny little town called Metuchen, New Jersey, nicknamed, the Brainy Borough, on the post office stamp. My father worked at a sawmill, and delivered wood on the side, but died when I was just six years old. My mother became a factory worker and a janitor at Rutgers University. I, therefore, got my work ethic from my parents at an early age. There were two older ladies, who were sisters,in my church that were maids. They knew that I cleaned houses on Saturdays for money so that I could have clothes. I got lucky! The homes where they both cleaned had daughters that were my size. I, therefore, began to get great hand-me-down clothes from them. This allowed me to look like everybody else as I attended school.

My fantastic English teacher, Mrs. Francis Stevens made learning fun and I wanted to imitate that someday. I wanted to study teaching because school was such a wonderful experience. Well, I became a teacher and thirty years later it is still such a great feeling to see the 'aha light bulb' experience go off in so many of my students' faces. I dedicate my book, The Gentle Red Pen: 101 Tips on Becoming the Teacher Who Makes a Difference and my 2012 Teacher of the Year Award from my school, to this fantastic teacher, Mrs. Stevens and to my first teacher, Mrs. Rosa Lee Watson, my trailblazing mother whose shoulders have stood above everyone that I have ever known.