We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nita Creekmore. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nita below.

Nita, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?

There is so much that I would change about an educational system that is so broken. If I had to lean on one thing to change about the educational system, it would be the way that are our Black and Brown students are often not seen, pushed to the side, where their genius is often ignored, and that they are disciplined at higher and harsher rates than white students in the education community. I would want to change the way students from marginalized communities are treated and often not treated with the dignity and respect they deserve as human beings. Often times, schools break those students and can be places of trauma and hurt —rather than spaces of joy, spaces of learning about true history and spaces of connection/positive relationships. I would change that.

Nita, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Hey everyone! My name is Nita Creekmore. My pronouns are she/her. I identify as a Black woman who has strong Creole roots and so proud of it. I am an Instructional Coach Consultant who lives just outside Atlanta, GA. I was born and raised in Woodbridge, Virginia. I taught for 13 years before becoming an Elementary School Instructional Coach. I was an Elementary Instructional Coach in public schools for 5 years. I am now a consultant through her company Love. Teach. Bless. and I am a full time presenter for Bright Morning Consulting. I also present for Get Your Teach On in my free time. I love being able to facilitate learning and pour into other coaches, leaders and other educators.

I obtained my Master’s Degree in Elementary Education in 2002 from the University of South Carolina. I also received her Educational Specialist Degree in Educational Leadership in 2013 from the University of Virginia as well. In the 18 years I have been in education, I truly believe that in all aspects of the field, relationships must always come first.

I began Love. Teach. Bless. on Instagram in 2015 as a fun hobby highlighting the engaging things that I did with my first grade class. From there, Love. Teach. Bless. has grown to be a true consulting business where I present on various topics surrounding coaching, coaches educators, and collaborating with a variety of educational companies. If you connect with me on my page, you will see my passion of diverse books that have people and themes that allow people to see the beauty, hear stories, and learn from other races and cultures of our world. I create book companions as well that can be used with those books. These help educators or caregivers to be able to have rich discussions with their students/kids.

I am married to my amazing and supportive husband, Michael Creekmore, Jr. in which we have a business together called Creekmore Conversations. We also have a mini t-shirt business called Blessed & Bearded Tees, check us out! Together we have four wonderful children, three daughters and a son ages 8,15, 16, and 18. In my free time, I love practicing yoga, exercising, spending time with my family and friends, attending my kids extracurricular activities, and relaxing with a good book. I also believe in striving to maintain balance and the importance of caring for self in order to care for others.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

When I first began Love. Teach. Bless. there was a huge feeling of feeling “little” in a social media world filled with “big fish.” There was even a meme that people kept re-sharing. It was something like, “I’m just a little fish.” I remember following Miss Mae (a now huge Educational you-tuber). She was also one of very few Black educators in the education social media world. She said something on her page that really stuck with me. She said we are all big fishes. Everyone has a gift. When I read that, it was like something enlightened in me, it said to me that I needed to share my love and passion for teaching—then coaching. That I needed to tap into my own gifts. I needed to be my authentic self, even behind the screen on social media. So that is what I did. I shared myself—me—who I was and things I was doing in my work and my audience grew. It built slowly, but it grew. I am now building up on Snap Chat as well! I am a one of twenty-five members of Snapchat’s 523 Black Creator Program and I’m so excited about that! Check me out there too! I will share the link!

My advice to those just trying to build a social media presence is to be your authentic self. It is to begin to think about what your gift is and what you want to share with the world. Think about what you want your brand to be and keep pushing towards growing that presence on social media and in your everyday life as well. It will grow—authentically. Try not to compare yourself with others on social media. Focus on you, your platform and your brand. Be you. No one else can be you.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I thought I wanted to be an Elementary School Administrator. I even spent 3 years getting my third degree in Educational Leadership. After many closed doors, due to NOT my level of skill set or my ability to do the job—but blatant racism, After many interviews, I realized that it wasn’t really the path that God choose for me. Those closed doors led me down the path to my purpose of Instructional Coaching. It led me to an endorsement in both Reading and Educational Coaching. It led me to my presenting world now. It led me to my current full time job presenting with Bright Morning Consulting. It led me to presenting with Get Your Teach On/Lead On. It led me to so many open doors and I know it’s a greater being higher than me that turned those closed doors into opened ones. Doors that see me and doors that value me, I made that pivot and that pivot turned to purpose.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://love-teach-bless.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loveteachbless/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/Loveteachbless/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nita-d-creekmore-m-a-t-ed-s-605baa26_thank-you-bell-hooks-what-she-meant-to-activity-6877791097066700800-eGjP
• Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/loveteachbless
• Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCGHGeZyBLR08sAW0Qkezj6Q
• Other: Snapchat-https://t.snapchat.com/EMjKy63s Blessed & Bearded Tees- https://www.bonfire.com/store/blessed–bearded-educators/ Creekmore Convos-https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiv4mrPbJK-IfXYsK5ehmEw

Image Credits
Me