WOW Mike. Thanks for this guest blog spot. I met Mike at the South Tama School opening in August of 2025. Mike was inspired by the storytelling aspect of the presentation as well as the importance of recognizing the power of our impact on kids and the school community. I loved hearing his story–and he shares it beautifully here. Thanks for leading, writing, and sharing Mike! So proud to meet Superintendent John Cain and his awesome team of educators at South Tama Schools.
Mike Carnahan is starting his 27th year teaching Instrumental Music in the South Tama County Community School District in Tama, IA. Previously, he taught for 5 years in the Adair-Casey Community School District in rural Adair, IA. Last school year, he was recognized as the VFW High School Teacher Of The Year for the State Of Iowa and has held civic positions within the City Of Tama as a councilman and as Mayor.
LET ME TELL YOU A STORY…by Mike Carnahan
This past August 2025, after “move-in day” for our daughter (only child) at the University Of Northern Iowa, my wife and I decided we were hungry but too tired to make anything, so we decided to share a plate at our local Chinese restaurant.
All of a sudden, we were approached by a former student of mine. “Hey, Mr. Carnahan, how’s it going?” I replied, “Josh! Good, thanks! We just dropped Emily off at college, and we just came to grab something to eat. How are you?”
“Good, good.” He acknowledged my wife and also said something about what a great thing, and an unbelievable thing, about our daughter already being college-aged. I had actually run into him a couple months prior when I went to a Tower Of Power concert at our local Meskwaki Casino. He apparently started working there as a floor boss in the gaming area. Had a great conversation then, too.
This one was more brief as he didn’t want to interrupt our time together, so he just said, “Hey, I just came over to tell you both that your dinner was taken care of, I paid for it.”
“Josh, wow. You don’t have to do that, that’s very kind.” My wife even asked, “Wow, thank you. You don’t need to do that, why?”
He looked at her, nodded, and said, “I have a debt to pay.” And he said his polite “see ya later” and took his dinner to go.
At our last meeting, at the casino, he also mentioned he “had a debt to pay me” and to the friends I was with that “this man literally saved my life. I wouldn’t be here today if not for him.”
Many years ago, a couple of students found out I enjoy video games, and they did too. So we would chat about gaming. We decided to create a Video Games Club here at STC (South Tama County, IA) to attract anyone with an interest in gaming. We were aiming for those students who don’t get involved in much. What we got were students who were not involved in anything, students who were involved in a couple of things, and students who were involved in ALL the things. Students who were Honor Roll caliber, or those who struggled, students who were athletic, or those who weren’t, students who were ultra-outgoing, or those who were extremely timid. Video games hit on such a cross-section of our student body that it proved to be pretty successful.
Once a month, we would hold “Gamers Nights” where we would set up all kinds of different systems and play various games. I am a PlayStation guy, but this allowed me to play around with an XBox. The students who started it with me, along with some of their friends, became extremely vested in it and “owned” it, often policing it themselves. We held students accountable for keeping their grades up in order to participate. We also encouraged any of our members who might be struggling in a class to seek out some help or tutoring from other gamers. It’s an awesome thing…and here I have to say video games get a bad wrap. Yes, I know the debates…but used in the right way, video games can be a powerful tool to build relationships.
So, building relationships. That’s one of, if not THE most important things I believe educators or anyone who works for a school can do.
That’s where Josh comes in. He was not involved in anything. The only thing he was involved in was being the “hot head,” short-tempered student who would explode in a classroom.
One day, our Assistant Principal came to me with a question… or, rather, a favor. “Mike,” he said, “I don’t know what to do with this kid, Josh Roberts. He loses his cool and becomes rather dangerous in the classroom. We give him a break to come out, and I ask him if he feels comfortable anywhere with anyone to calm down. He said you were the only one he felt this with.”
“Wow, ok. Well, I suppose that’s cool. What can I do?”
“Can he come to your room when he needs a little timeout? Can you and he talk through some things to see if we can’t get him to cool down?” he asked.
“Well, I am not a Guidance Counselor, and I’m not sure I am completely trained for something like that, but sure. We can give it a go, kid needs somewhere to go and someone he trusts to be with.”
Josh and I decided together that maybe what would be good would be for me to order one of those “daily affirmation” type books and read one or two together, discuss them, and learn from them both. I made sure he knew I wanted to learn from this experience as well.
I chose a book called “Today No, Every Day!” by Gary Rupert. Once I got it, we started in on it. This was really going quite well! We read out loud together and discussed the entry, calming him down and continuing to build trust. Pretty soon, Josh was smiling (even when not with me, I mean, like when he was in the halls, or at gamers nights, etc.). He wasn’t entirely cured of his temper, but definitely better.
By his Junior year, Josh joined band. Being a beginner in HS is tough, but I welcome the challenge. My philosophy is “do YOUR best,” which simply means whatever level you are at, your best is expected, and then a little more. Be a better band (or musician) than yesterday is another of my sayings…students should improve each time they walk out the door of the Band Room, that can be in for a lesson then out…or that can mean in as a Freshman and out as a last day Senior. Josh did his best, and he made some very important memories.
So when I ran into him at that concert in the Casino and he was telling me about where he was at in life now…and that if it weren’t for me, things would be much different…well, that was pretty powerful and dare I say means way more to me than any paycheck.
Just his quiet approach so as not to bother us, but to tell us he paid for our dinner, and that he felt he had a debt to pay….wow.
I’ve had some other similar experiences, but this one takes the cake. Keep building relationships, friends. You just never know how much your impact will matter to someone else!
