Ah, the end of January. A time when many of us are busy thinking about TCAs and painfully trying to bring our grades up before the marking period ends. But a certain group of students had more important things on their minds: preparing a pleasant surprise for their math teacher on his upcoming birthday. 

On the morning of January 26th, 2023, dozens of students flooded into Mr. Ramdeen’s room with bags of balloons, gifts, birthday cards, and birthday decorations. The whiteboards were filled with doodles, messages, signatures, and even a math-themed birthday cake. 

But it wasn’t just the people in the morning who went out of their way to wish happy birthday. When I arrived for his class last period, the whiteboard was so full of appreciative students and their birthday wishes that it took up almost every inch of the space. “I think I’m the only teacher in all of Boro that has ever had something like this done for them,” Mr. Ramdeen remarked happily after a bunch of students sang him a happy birthday medley and posed for a group picture with him. They singlehandedly managed to bring a room full of fun a celebration on an otherwise bleak and boring Thursday morning (did not mean that to rhyme I swear). 

Mr. Ramdeen is the beloved teacher that was celebrated on this day. He is known by most Med Sci students, due to the fact that he teaches AP Statistics and AP Calculus. Yet, clearly, he means a lot to a lot of his students, Med Sci or not. That’s why, I sought to discover what makes Mr. Ramdeen such a great teacher that it would compel a bunch of kids to go through so much care and effort into this celebration.

I had the pleasure of getting to sit down and speak with Ania Celis, a junior at Boro’s Med Sci Program who has had Ramdeen for the past two years. She informed me about the birthday party and how it came to fruition. She took credit for the surprise and told me that the idea just came to her once she found out Mr. Ramdeen’s birthday was coming soon. She told me that she took it upon herself and bought all the decorations the night before and came in early on the day of, to decorate for 10-20 minutes. She also remarked that a surprisingly large amount of people came to help decorate and celebrate and that they ran out of balloons too quickly! Even people who haven’t even had Mr. Ramdeen poked their heads in just to gaze at the heartwarming sight. 

Finally, when I asked her what makes Mr. Ramdeen special and what were her motivations for this surprise, she remarked, “He’s funny! He’s so nice, and he really cares about his students”. Even if you haven’t had the pleasure of being in one of Mr. Ramdeen’s classes, it’s now clear to see why he received so much joy and admiration from his pupils. I hope everyone gets to have a teacher like Mr. Ramdeen, and if you already do, don’t be shy to show your appreciation and thanks. Maybe ask them when their birthday is – who knows, maybe they enjoy surprises too.

Gallery • 3 Photos

Photo Courtesy of Jenna

The birthday surprise included many balloons with hand-drawn characters like these!