Memphis teacher motivates students with inspirational daily mantra

— -- Students in Michael Scruggs’ classes at a Memphis, Tennessee, charter high school begin every class by repeating an inspirational mantra with Scruggs, who runs around the classroom as his students repeat it.

“I am number one,” Scruggs’ 150 students say every day. “I have everything it takes to be number one. I am successful. I am great. I woke up with a purpose.

“My day will be great,” they continue. “Scholars get scholarships. Scholars get scholarships. I get scholarships. We all get scholarships.”

Scruggs, 37, a six-year teaching veteran in his first year teaching at the W.E.B. Du Bois School of Leadership and Public Policy, admitted his students thought he was “crazy” on the first day of school as he ran around pumping them up.

“But I never changed,” Scruggs told ABC News. “I was consistent with this mantra and after a while they started doing it.”

Kendall Morgan, 14, a ninth-grade student in Scruggs' social studies class, said she now hears the mantra in her head “all the time.”

“It motivates me to keep going,” said Morgan, who also noted her first impression of Scruggs was, “I thought he was crazy.”

"Now I love him," she said. "He has a positive attitude and he has a lot of respect for himself and other people."

Scruggs, who grew up in South Memphis himself and went on to earn a master’s degree in education, came up with the mantra in his first year of teaching. Now at the W.E.B. Du Bois School, which is 95 percent African-American, the mantra is living up to the legacy of the school’s namesake.

“[W.E.B. Du Bois] was a scholar so it’s like the legacy continues,” said Scruggs. “I want to plant the seed that you can do big things if you just put your mind to it.”

The school’s principal, Angela Jackson, said both attendance and performance have improved “drastically” at the school since Scruggs instituted his uplifting mantra.

“The entire school talks about it,” said Jackson, who also has students recite poems and quotes daily. “One quote all our students learn is ‘Attitude. Principle,’ and this builds on that.”