SOAR teacher Samantha Munks wants students to succeed, no matter what challenges they face

A good teacher educates you, but a great one inspires you.

Samantha Munks, a SOAR (Students Obtaining Achievement and Responsibility) high school teacher in Peru, pushes her students to be their best by inspiring them to dream and supporting them by meeting them at their level.

“She was always on my butt about getting the right education,” her former fifth grade student Patrick Rucker said. “She was on me every day to make sure I would stay on task.”

SOAR, which operates under La Salle/Putnam Educational Alliance for Special Education, provides instructional support to students in kindergarten through 12th grade with significant behavioral and emotional needs.

“These are kids they said wouldn’t succeed. I said they’re in my classroom – so they’re going to.”

—  Samantha Munks, SOAR teacher

Now a fourth grade teacher at Calumet Public School in Calumet Park, Rucker said Munks knew how to pull something out of her students they didn’t realize they had.

“She demands the right way,” Rucker said. “She really had to break me down, to build me back up and make me who I am now … Mrs. Munks and I still talk to this day … our relationship is very, very strong.”

Munks said growing up in the Ottawa/Naplate area in a separated family, some of her teachers weren’t always kind to her, but the ones who took her in inspired her to pursue a career in education.

“The ones that took me under their wing and told me no matter what, you can be anything you want in the world, no matter your economic background, no matter how you learn … they set the tone for my education," Munks said.

Munks always wanted to be the kind of teacher who shows students they can succeed, no matter what challenges they face.

“One of my junior high teachers, Mrs. Laura Parks, helped me set that tone for myself,” Munks said. “You can push yourself, and you’ll always have an army behind you.”

She worked at Friendship Village in Ottawa in junior high school and quickly realized her passion was special education, and her dream was to attend Illinois State University to obtain a degree in teaching.

So, she and her grandmother came up with a plan: each year, they would make an educational goal, short and long term, to ensure she would meet her dream of becoming an educator.

“And when I became a teacher, my No. 1 goal was to make a child feel comfortable in my classroom, to make a child feel wanted, that they were worthy and could accomplish anything.”

Munks graduated from Illinois State University with a bachelor’s degree in special education in 2005 and began teaching at Calumet Public School in Calumet Park on the south side of Chicago.

She taught her first set of students from third to eighth grade, and she still talks to them once a month.

“We call it family time,” she said. “We FaceTime each other. All of them are successful.”

One is a special education teacher (Rucker), one owns his own business, one is a head charge nurse at one of the Chicago hospitals and another is a bomb specialist in the Navy, she said.

“These are kids they said wouldn’t succeed,” Munks said. “I said they’re in my classroom – so they’re going to.”

Rucker said Munks has an intense teaching style and gave her students an education in the classroom and life. He said that’s something he’s continued with his students.

“How to become a better person in life,” he said. “Never take stuff to the heart – that was the biggest thing she taught me. Everything I thought was personal was not personal at all.”

Munks spent 12 years in Chicago and five years in Joliet before becoming a high school teacher at SOAR. She said it was another goal checked off her list.

“My whole life, I’ve always wanted to work, what was formerly known as the Circuit Breaker,” she said. “That was always my passion – children who they said had behavioral issues.”

SOAR Principal Janelle L. Gustafson said Munks has remained passionate about teaching at the school.

“Her lessons provide academic skills as well as post-secondary planning,” Gustafson said. ”Mrs. Munks also oversees our high school’s coffee business, Coffee and Chaos."

Munks has strived to make her classroom welcoming and loving.

“Sometimes kids don’t have a safe space, and we want them to know our classroom is a safe space,” she said.

Munks said her students this year have changed her as a teacher by caring about each other.

“They are there for one another,” Munks said. ”They may get agitated, but they really listen and help each other out … I have to say this year has brought me back to my first year of teaching.

“They love to learn. They want anything they can possibly have. And that’s great because for me, education is the key to unlocking the future.”