SAN ANTONIO — Abby Ramos inspires her students to read more than they have ever read and motivates them to create projects that help communities as far away as South America, but it’s Ramos' Girl Talk Club that’s capturing the attention of so many teachers and parents around the country. She founded a movement that aims to empower young middle school girls and her club has gone viral on social media.
Ramos is an eighth-grade English teacher at Longfellow Middle School. KENS 5 Anchor Sarah Forgany and partner, Credit Human, stopped by her classroom to present her with the KENS 5 EXCEL Award and a $1,000 check.
On Tik Tok, Girl Talk is all the talk. In a short video clip, Abby Ramos is dressed in her girl talk swag while explaining to her followers what the club stands for, "I'm gonna tell you a little bit more about girl talk and how it works.”
It works by meeting weekly with a group of eighth grade girls who choose to join the club. Any girl wishing to be part of the club can join, no strings attached. Ramos said the goal is to build their self-esteem, an everyday battle especially for middle school kids.
“It’s about conflict resolution and dealing with the things girls have to deal with,” Ramos said in her TikTok video.
Ramos founded Girl Talk a decade ago when she taught in other school districts across Texas and brought the club to San Antonio with her. She said it’s like a sorority, a support group she wishes existed when she was a kid herself.
“I've been that new girl who didn't have anybody, I didn't have a sister of my own, and it's hard to find a network."
Ramos said that type of network is desperately needed at schools these days. She recalls coming across startling data in her early teaching years.
"There's a big bucket of girls who weren't involved in anything, they were starting to get into more trouble. There's nothing at school that's bringing them in and they don't feel like we see them and we don't," said Ramos.
That research was the moment she decided to do something and Girl Talk was born.
“There's a bunch of clubs, but you have to pay money or you have to have talent or be fast or whatever. But there's girls that just need something to be a part of," Ramos said.
Many of her girls are now proudly wearing their pink pledge ribbons around campus. They spread the word encouraging other girls who need it to join.
"I really wanted to build something for sisterhood, so I think that that's a really important skill for women to know that other girls are supporting them and to support other women and just to feel confident in themselves," said Ramos.
That confidence shines through with the boys too. Watching her in the classroom, you can see Ramos has a special relationship with all her students. Eighth-grader Danny Alexander is part of her Wordle club. He and other kids get together in Ramos’ classroom after school and play the guessing game, working as a team and guessing words until they figure it out. Danny told us it’s a great way for him to meet new people but he’s also inspired by her free choice reading method.
“She’s got a lot of good books here,” Danny said.
From romance, to scary and sports, Ramos said her students can pretty much read whatever they want ”to be exposed to things outside of their community... and to see stories that are windows and mirrors for them.”
Ramos said her reading program is so successful that many of her students end up reading upwards of 30 books a year, and kids who didn’t read at all before are now reading five or more books.
"For a long time, we've actually made kids dislike reading because we tell them exactly what they need to read,” Ramos added. "A lot of those books don't look like the students in our classrooms."
To keep up with her students, Ramos herself reads about 60 books a year. But whether it’s a book, a word, or just a buddy talk, Ramos said the goal is always to give her students her complete attention.
“When you look at students as actual people that are going to grow into this world, then yeah, you can't help but care a lot about them," said Ramos.
Ramos is also the book fair organizer. She puts together fundraisers to give kids $10 to spend at the school book fair, which otherwise can sometimes be inaccessible.