Hello! My name is JaTina Threat and I am a product of the East Cleveland School District. The image shown is of me a few years after graduating from high school. Growing up, I enjoyed school. I was a social butterfly. But high school was just high school for me. I say that because I had teachers of different races and backgrounds that really didn’t understand me for who I was. Let me be clear, I was never a bad student, in fact, I had good grades, was a Highlighter in the band and worked jobs within the school. There were just times when I was demotivated, even times of shutting down in the classroom. Teachers sometimes looked at this as being a problem or even perceiving it as a disability. It was my senior year and guess what happened? I got pregnant! From there, life changed. My perception back then of my life was that I would be nothing but a baby mama working at McDonalds, but God had a different plan for me. There was one thing I remember vividly and will NEVER forget. There was a teacher in high school that flat out told me that I would never complete college because I didn’t have the critical skill to know how to study. On top of that, I had a baby. That statement resonated through me and was my motivation to push on. I graduated from high school as an honor roll student and was accepted into Cleveland State University, later leaving and going to Capital University where my son watched his mom graduate with a social work degree.
Years later, after working in the social work field, getting married and having another child, I decided to go back to school to get a Master’s Degree in Education where I have been working since then. I have been a Teacher and Principal. I am currently an Executive Director of School & Community Relations for a public school district. I am also a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated where service is what we do. It has been an honor to teach and lead students and teachers, build relationships with families and to leave a small part of me with every student I have had the pleasure of working with. For a lot of kids, I understand what they are going through which allows me to show genuine empathy and encouragement to them. I love working in the field of education.
The image you see now is of a person who is proud and blessed to be a black woman who is living her life like it is golden. Moving forward, I am looking forward to my future of becoming Dr. Threat in May, 2023. I am in the process of finishing my dissertation which concentrates on teacher-student relationships, attachment theory and the impact these relationships have on student’s social-emotional development. It is my goal to teach higher education where I can help to educate pre-service teachers on the skills they need to teach the whole child. I want to share experiences that may help them to overcome challenges with students, but more importantly, I want to build their leadership capacity so that when they get to the point where they have their own classroom, they feel confident in knowing what they need to do to meet the needs of every student in their classroom. Teaching pre-service teachers the importance of teacher-student relationships is crucial to their success as well as the students’ success. It will be my job to share the knowledge that I have learned from my dissertation and work experiences to educate others. I love meeting new people and connecting with like-minded folks. If you would like to connect, you can find me on LinkedIn.
Recognize Education And Learning 