UPDATE: She is no longer with this school district. She lives in Denver, Colorado now and is a research analyst.

"I had classroom management issues" - how nicely she said that the kids didn't behave themselves :)

The school is lucky to have such a bright, articulate, and competent teacher.

Context: Christmas season in the Philippines is the longest in the world (typically September up to January 9), so when she says she's lonely on Christmas, that isn't a 1 day thing.

I have zero idea why this is in my recommended but kudos to her and I wish her all the best.

It takes a lot of courage to go to the other side of the world and teach other people’s kids.

even as an american, i would feel incredibly lonely in a rural city like that with no family nearby. props to her. i'm an educator too and i know the struggles that come with teaching students here. not only the students behavior, but the parents behavior and even admin support (or lack of) can make or break you. i wish her all the best and i hope she knows we are so grateful she is here. as for the leaders of this country, i desperately hope you do something about our education system before it crumbles to dust.

I actually had a filipino english teacher and she had an amazing passion about her work. She was one of my favourite teachers!

as a filipino, her last lines where she mentions that she felt the loneliest during birthdays and christmas hits hard

She is being too nice. Just say the kids are undisciplined.

Dear god this poor thing. She is so brave and wonderful to stay. I grew up in a town similar to this in Ohio and had a few foreign exchange students and two teachers from China (one replaced the other) in my time. I loved getting to know people from other cultures and was so grateful to have the chance to meet them. They, however, were shocked and upset usually. They expected New York or at least Chicago. No one wanted to be in small town farmland USA in the middle of nowhere, with a 30 minute drive to the nearest movie theater or shopping center. Our first Chinese teacher (teaching Mandarin) quit after one year because she couldn't stand how the rowdy students wouldn't respect her and the town/people weren't what she expected. I get it. Some exchange students got very bitter about their placement with us, which I understood. 'But this is the typical American experience,' we'd have to tell them and they'd say how they never saw anything like this in the media. They were always very frustrated. Foreigners dream about America by way of Hollywood, New York, Disney World, Hawaii, Alaska, Washington DC, without realizing the sheer size of the country between those few landmarks and the reality that most people here don't live those kinds of lives. Maybe they don't realize a lot of Americans dream about that kind of life, too. Unfortunately most of us don't ever get to live it, either. Anyway, those people in that town are gaining something special by having her around. But if it's anything like my town, they probably don't appreciate it. The townspeople seem like they don't know what to do with her, which is frustrating. In small towns like that it is so easy to become 'other' and never find community. The culture shock for her must be unreal. It is shocking for me when I go back to visit after living in the city, and I never even left the country. I hope she is able to move on before it gets too much for her. I was born in a place like that and felt like I was suffocating even though it was all I ever knew. I can't imagine moving there from a vibrant city where there's love and family and leaving all that behind.

In Asia, people value , respect education and hard work. They need it to get out misery and poverty. Respect , honor our parents, older people and teachers is normal. I remember my English teacher declined job offer in the U.S. after a job orientation. She was so glad to be back with her students even though the pay was lower.

When I moved to the US I was shocked to see how disrespectful students were. In Cuba if you misbehave the teacher calls your mom and she comes to the school and disciplines you right then and there. It’s a big deal for a parent to be called to the school

Charmaine has qualities that will continue to serve her well, and we Americans are fortunate to have her here.

A brave lady! You can imagine how much challenges and cultural barriers she has to overcome when working distantly from her families. Well done! You deserve the respect!

just a little girl with a big heart - and highly qualified - I am a foreigner, married 34 years to a Filipina (met in person, not online, or in a bar) came to Philippines for a vacation many years ago and fell in love with the place and the people - retired here now for 11 years - Charmaine summed it up in one sentence : "in the Philippines, they see you in uniform, as a teacher, they respect you"- that's the key word here : "respect" - I lived in America for 7 years and couldn't believe the sloppy dress (here it's compulsory to wear a uniform) and attitude of the students - she mentions birthdays and Christmas, I am overwhelmed here by the affection of family and friends, during birthdays and Christmas - other countries could learn a lot about life, from the Philippines

She's alone in a rural area. You can feel how difficult her and it is admirable that she managed to go on.

she is a cool person, hope she finds more success.

She is perfect, I used to work in PI and love that country. Please keep her happy and get the food that she wants and make sure she is welcomed into happy homes during the holidays, it would be easy to have some trucker get the food from a nearby city and drop it off as they pass through. The Filipino accent is gentle to listen compared to other dialects. They have 7000 tropical islands there and many US Navy bases.

The adaptation and sacrifices she made are admirable! It tough to living in vastly different climates, lacking basic basic ingredients, dealing with different culture, speak different language, and to excel at the task assigned are amazing🙏

"In the Philippines you don't have to do anything. They see you in uniform, as a teacher, they respect you. Here, in America, I think you have to prove yourself before they respect you." - Chairmaine Teodoro Math Teacher Julesburg High School, Colorado

She’s the meaning of what being a teacher is. I’m not a Filipino but I’m sure damn proud of her. She has guts and more then that she dedicated her knowledge to those in need. Bless her.

Wow she is amazing. People don’t realize how hard it is to be foreign, in a rural area with probably not many (any?) other Filipinos, new to this country, and taking one of the hardest jobs that requires the most patience! She is awesome.

It's good to see the community recognizing and appreciating her work.

''Suddenly math became the most popular subject in high school with the boys''.

Having studied in both the States and then later in the Philippines I can tell you that Filipinos respect their teachers 10000000X times more than Americans do. It was actually quite a culture shock for me, the most disrespect I saw in a Filipino classroom was sleeping in class. In the States kids would make it a point to make their teacher cry if they could. So I feel for this teacher, teaching in the states is its own entire beast.

Bravo to Charmaine's bravery in relocating to another country and very rural part at that; not to mention the grit in sticking it through in a culture (USA) who's kids need the adults to prove themselves before they will act with some basic respect. Charmaine will outgrow this town and it's people soon if they don't find ways to keep talent like her.

I did not realize this story is 4 years old! I would love to see the update!

"In the Philippines, they see you in uniform, as a teacher, they respect you." Wish it was like this in the US. I see so many students disrespect their teachers. I give big props to Charmaine to be able to do what she does. Good job!

Imagine moving straight from Manila, Philippines - one of the biggest cities in the world - to a town in rural America that's a million miles from nowhere and has only one restaurant and one post office!! And to do this alone not knowing a single person takes a lot of courage! I wish her well. She seems like a good caring teacher and a decent person

The bit about respect really got me, my girlfriend is a teacher here in the US and her first year was hell because of the constant need to prove herself and gain respect from the students. Even if most of the class respects you there are almost always 1-6 students that will make your life hell. So many parents do not discipline their children well enough at home and also do not respect teachers themselves. They think their child is perfect and that its the teachers fault the student is not performing well in school, and this mentality further affects the respect the student has for their teacher as children are impressionable. "Seeing the uniform they automatically respect you," this is how it should be in America, along with many other things such as pay

I can relate with her when she said birthday and Christmas is the loneliest time when you are far away from your home/country.. homesickness attack..

Thank god she is a teacher here. We are lucky to have her.

This story is so awesome. She must be really smart and hardworking to be able to learn another language and mathematics in that language so well, that you can come to another country and teach. She's really inspiring!

What a heart warming story. A brave young lady moving to a foreign land.

Man, I used to have a foreign math teacher who was always SO worried about her accent, because the students would always look confused when she spoke. She thought it was because we didn't understand her English, but we had to finally tell her that it was because we didn't understand her math, lol! It was advanced and some of it was over our heads. Her English was just fine.

Same! Before I moved here from Hong Kong I thought all parts of America are like New York and California, until I started seeing flat lands when I was on the airplane some time before landing. She seems to be an intelligent, smart, passionate teacher and I wish her all the best. Students are lucky to have her as a teacher.

Thank you for stepping up Charmaine and teaching our children in rural communities God bless you.

I was an instructor at USAMPS in Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri for 3 years, thoroughly in the middle of nowhere in the Midwest. At least an Army installation, so some entertainment and shopping provided. But coming from Germany, where the next bigger city with all its possibilities usually isn’t that far away, yeah, I was really lonely there. The two cats I got only helped to a degree, and while it overall was a good experience I wouldn’t want to miss, the loneliness in this rural setting was suffocating, and I was glad to go back to Germany when my tour ended. Not to say that that can’t happen to you in rural Germany, especially in the eastern part. But coming from another country just makes it double hard. My utmost respect for this brave teacher, I so know what she is talking about when she says it’s hard to find someone her age and with her interests!

Much respect for this lady. They should be thankful they have her teaching at their school.

We are lucky to have her. She is extremely intelligent, a mathematician. Every year she works she is guiding students towards passing math. When a particularly talented student comes along she is prepping them for college STEM education. You can see how much the local residents appreciate having her there because they see her value every day.

Fascinating story. I think it's the same in plenty of rural communities in Australia but I hope Charmaine succeeds. She has tested herself here. She deserves it. I genuinely admire what she's doing.

Proud of you Charmaine 🇵🇭 I hope can find the time to give yourself a little break, have a short vacation and spend the holiday back home. Ingat ka! ❤

"in the phillipines they see you in uniform they respect you, here you have to prove yourself." my god our education system, and parenting, is that bad.

I can feel her loneliness, seeing her standing accross the field with the train passing by ...

Oh my God! she was my 8th grade math teacher here in the Philippines.

I can't imagine how homesick she must be.

Charmaine, welcome to America. I'm an old guy that has a business in Pasig,the Philippines since 1960's. I was young then but time has passed. I appreciate you sacrificing to teach here. I know exactly the family ties Filipinos have, and that is what make them endearing to me I know you miss them,. I wish we could make contact, I would send you kamote, atis, marrungay (mallungay), jack fruit, pancit, bitter melon, bananas. I have them all in my yard in Florida. I spend several months a year in Philippines, and hope to die there. The people I know there are more than family, and I immerse myself in helping the plight of the squatters, Payatas, smoky mountain, Navotas, etc, wherever they need help. God bless you. Don't get tied down there forever, America is huge. See it all. Maraming salamat po.

She is lovely, smart and you are lucky to have her.

I wish her well - she seems like a great person and I am sure she will use it as a stepping stone to move onwards , in America if she so wishes. there are over 4 million Filipinos / Filipino ancestry in the US so she will do well I am sure. Filipinos are awesome people.

I'm from Latin America and when I moved here at age 11 I was also really surprised by how disrespectful students were to teachers in public schools. Back in my home country I was scared of my teachers, they walked by and everyone got quiet and straightened up their backs. If they called your parents because you misbehaved you were in serious trouble at home. Here, I have a friend who is a teacher and she permanently injured her vocal cord from having to yell so much in her classroom because students were so unruly (she quit the next year). And you know what she said, it's the parents who are first to defend their kids instead of disciplining them for bad behavior. It's sad because you also lose the best teachers this way, good teachers should be better compensated and given much more respect for the incredible work they do.

"The only time you will feel the loneliest is when it's your birthday or Christmas" That hit me. I'm proud of you ate!

When my mother was in a nursing home on the Eastcoast almost all of the nurses were from the Philippines and they were by far the most skilled, competent, kind and respectful of the patients compared to the other staff. Even their English was better than some of the American staff. They made the last few years of my mother's life much better. Thank you Charmaine for doing what you do. Your students and community are lucky.

The scene where she was standing on the curb and watching freight train passing by touched my heart. I can feel how lonely she is. But she is a lovely lady. Hope she can find a family soon.

What a lovely lady. Students are lucky to have her.

Imagine how hard it is in developing countries that a young woman, even believing that the whole stuff is a scam, decided to take the risks anyways.

I came to the US as a J1 foreign exchange student back in 2008, also in a small town, in Nebraska. Now I have been in the US for over 15 years. It has been a journey! I am grateful for everything I have now. I love this country!

I understand her. I live in rural Japan teaching and it’s not like what you see online. Now I’m married here and love my community but the first year was so lonely. No friends and everyone looks different and acts different to you. It’s really hard.

Salary is one issue but more often it is simply that small towns are less attractive to younger people. Even this video pointed out that there is one cafe. Probably half of her students leave town after graduation, leaving few people her age in the town. That is a hard sell, to a twenty-something just starting their professional career.

The Filipino people are some of the kindest and most generous people I've ever met.

Ms.Teodoro is quite brave to travel so far alone in a new country. I'm sure it feels very lonely. Seems as though people have grown to appreciate and respect her. That's great to see.

From a fellow teacher....welcome and keep it up. Wish I was there to support you.

I liked the part where she said the Philippine students knew to respect the teacher! It should be like that here in the USA! It used to be that way!

she speaks very well no wonder why they hire her bec of her eloquency and fluency

what a sweetheart. probabaly a great instructor with her gentle demeanor

My wife had option to go USA but we preferred Dubai, glad to see this video we were right to do it.

She is the nicest and kindest teacher I have ever seen!

She’s a sweetheart. Hopefully she wasn’t alone for Christmas.

I am a teacher on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, and I love my colleagues from the Philippines!

J1 Visas.. Wow, that’s a lot of math classes & range to teach 😮! She does a great job. 40% rural small school have challenges finding teachers for hire. Thank You Charmaine ❤❤❤❤

Sometimes you have to fail to succeed, Most times it amazes me greatly how I moved from an average lifestyle to earning over $63k per month, Utter shock is the word. I have understood a lot in the past few years that there are lots of opportunities in the financial market. The only thing is to know where to invest.

I would advise Principal Superintendent Ehnes to seek another teacher of similar age from the Philippines. Being the only one in a foreign country like that is brutal. When I lived in India I used to love to see and meet other people who were like me. I loved the people from India (A LOT), but there is something to be said about having people from your home culture that you can relate with.

Shes intelligent and beautiful. And brave too, it takes a lot of courage to travel so far and do this.

I respect this women so much. She is so strong and inspiring, and I hope she is doing well.

omg someone make a movie out of this!!!! I'd definitely watch it

She’s so homesick- but her extended family is depending on her income. Just the way it is for many immigrants that move to the USA

she is beautiful not just outside but her heart and soul.

She IS SO CUUUTE

Wow what a remarkable story and a fine person, and her host family too. Best wishes to her, it's great that school district found a really good teacher who cares about her work.

Here in the Philippines, we were taught that our teachers is our second mother. Treat them as we treat our mothers.

America is big so expect even ghost towns. Just like Canada, some rural areas are like frozen in time.

The great plains are very lonely and interesting at the same time. For someone coming from a hot crowded metropolis like Manila, Julesburg in the winter is a complete 180. Cold and empty. Julesburg is a small yet historic town near the nebraska border with key infrastructure passing through it. Its on the UP overland route between Chicago and Denver which is part of the original transcontinental railroad. It's also along a key truck route between Denver and america's agricultural heartland. It's an hour from the Nebraska sand dunes which is a hidden natural wonder within the US.

she is such a nice person and i respect teachers more even time flys and now i reliaze teachers are not that bad

Such a humble and lovely woman.

What a lovely ,talented and caring woman. Taking on a duty in a land so far away and different than her own. I'm a chef by trade, I know many people from the Philippines. Funny,hardworking, great people.

Charmaine. A lot of the initial shock you experienced with small town rural America was not unlike what my wife of 19 years experienced in 2005, when she first came to rural Illinois after marrying me. She is from the big city of Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam. She was expecting Chicago IL in her mind. She got Dixon IL and Marion IL Okay, now, in 2023 we live in Mesa AZ and metro Phoenix, but still, Marion IL is still quite different from any Asian city or even Phoenix AZ. Speaking of Arizona, there is a small rural public school district in the South of Arizona. The town of Wilcox... almost to the New Mexico border. All of the Math and Physics Dept high school teachers are from India. They are foreigners. So this is occurring more often. Expect this to continue, and potentially accelerate as the teacher shortage in US becomes worse...much like the nursing shortage in the USA.

Her state of it being difficult to find the veggies she's used to from her homeland to cook some of the foods she wants reminds me of a story my mom told me about when she was in college. She was a first generation immigrant and roomed with some other immigrants in a rural town university. All the food at the groceries was standard western faire, without any ethnic markets around (it may be a different story now, this was in the 80's). At some point, she had gone on a small trip and found some Chinese watercress randomly growing in a pond. They got so excited and took a little bit of it from the random private pond in grocery bags to take home. They then filled the bathtub in their apartment with water and put the watercress there so they could cook all their favorite watercress dishes that they'd want. Eventually they got tired of having to ask friends to borrow their bathrooms to bathe in so they drained the bath and gave away whatever was left to the few Asians around that they knew. To anyone living in a foreign place, having a small taste of home was such a special moment.

She looks like a really nice lady.

_Most of America is rural._

Wow she speaks better English than a lot people here...

I watched this some years ago. Does anyone have any updated information on this teacher? Is she still with rural school in Colorado?

I think alot of americans don't want to pursue teaching anymore because they know very well how kids act in school and the school higher ups are not doing anything about it.

i think she is one of those teachers that when your fifty you will still remember with fondness

She acts and sounds very professional. Many contemporary Americans can learn from her.

You have so much to offer the people and students of USA. Thank You.

She is a Math teacher and she also articulates really, really well. She is much more than her physical built and should have gained a lot of respect after having handled some “classroom management” issues. She is lucky to have an American family to live with but I hope her situation gets even better. I hope her Filipino family can be with her real soon to enjoy that adobo. Mabuhay ka, Kabayan!

I had a Filipina Spanish teacher in highschool. She was awesome

God bless this young woman. I hope she is still here and doing well.

J-1 visas are difficult visas. She has to go home to the Philippines for 2-3 years before she can go back and be rehired as working visa holders. Unless they also have J-1 waivers...which there should be since there are many underserved areas in the US

I admire her so much for being a brave young woman, choosing to live and teach in a place away from the comfort of her homeland. She is beautiful and she deserves respect not just as a teacher but as a person as a whole. ❤ Best of luck!