25 Random Things About My Life as a Teacher
So, this is a variation on the Facebook meme that asks people to write 25 Random Things about themselves. I first wrote this for the NorCal Writing Project’s ning site, and figured it ought to be here, on the blog, too.
1. During the first week of my first teaching job–fresh out of college, August 1987–one of my students brought a gun to class. While I was writing on the chalkboard, he took it out of his bag, showed it to his classmates, waved it around … and I was oblivious.
2. I lied like crazy in my job interview for that first teaching position. Well, stretched the truth. “Can you teach drama?” “Sure!” “How about speech?” “You bet!” “Newspaper? Yearbook?” “Absolutely!” Little did I think that I would, actually, have to teach those things.
3. I still feel like a big faker when I’m teaching sometimes. What on earth do I know about anything, anyway? That’s the little doubting voice I hear.
4. I absolutely hate the 5 paragraph essay. But I used to teach it to my high school students because I didn’t know how else to teach writing.
5. When I was in college, I started out as a chemical engineering major. I stuck with it for two years, too. I wasn’t bad at it; I made it through physical chemistry, physics, calculus, differential equations. When I sent my transcripts in to the state of Washington to get credentialed, they came back certifying me to teach English, Math, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. I guess I should be grateful I was never assigned to teach anything out of the English realm.
6. I never coached a sport when I taught high school. I don’t think I was qualified.
7. After one of my students brought a paintball gun to school for a required speech about a hobby, he invited me to come play with a group in town. I accepted. I spent the next 4 years or so shooting students every few weekends. It was very cathartic. I suspect that those who shot me felt equally joyful. And the student who got me started? We’re Facebook friends now, and have kept in touch via email for years.
8. I acted in the play “Jabberwock,” taking the role of James Thurber’s father, when I was an English teacher at Kelso High School. It was a joint production of my school and the local 2-year college. It was great fun. I’d never before acted (formally).
9. When I took over the newspaper program at Kelso High, I got in big trouble for letting the students decide whether to run a couple of pieces that were, frankly, not in the best of taste. But I’d boned up on journalism laws as they applied to high schools, and it seemed that I couldn’t censor just because I disagreed with the editor. Well, my principal didn’t see things that way, and I was too chicken to fight him about it. It was just my second year of teaching, so maybe that’s an excuse for having no backbone.
10. Colleges pay lip service to teaching, but do little to foster it, or remedy it when it’s lacking/absent.
11. In graduate school, I experienced some of the worst teachers ever. The bad teachers were usually brilliant writers, though. This makes me wonder whether I really want to be a good writer, if it will turn me into a sucky teacher.
12. Even if I’m teaching a text I’ve taught 20 times before, I still have to reread it the night before I teach it.
13. In my big jumbo class of 100 students, I’m lucky if I know 30 of their names at the semester’s end. I’m not happy about that, but I don’t quite know what to do to fix the situation, either.
14. At a homecoming assembly at Kelso High, I once dressed as Franz (my friend, math teacher Chuck Scheiwiller, was Hans) and used my best Ahnold accent to whip the kids into a frenzy. This was when the whole Hans and Franz thing (with Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon) was a big deal on SNL.
15. When I started teaching at Chico State, I was completely shocked by the state of dress of young women on campus. I still am, sometimes, but mostly it’s just become part of the landscape of this region to me.
16. Once, I had to miss a class and asked Tom Fox and Rochelle Ramay to teach the class for me. That was the day one of my students decided he’d wear a t-shirt that proclaimed “I have a small penis” on it. I wish I’d been able to see Rochelle’s face when he walked in, late, as she was talking to the class. I would have, for once, seen her at a loss for words.
17. I’ve mostly learned about teaching through trial by fire. Sometimes it’s worked well; sometimes, not so much. I keep Rochelle’s little aphorism in my head: Even if you fall flat on your face, at least you’re moving forward.
18. My cooperating teacher, when I student taught back in 1986, was a great guy named Ken Bolf. He taught me to own whatever I was teaching. I was terrified when I decided not to teach a sci-fi story he loved, because I thought he’d be upset, but he just agreed with my choice because I’d said I thought it would work better for my way of teaching. I appreciated his support and flexibility.
19. Working on inservice projects with Rochelle has been one of the craziest, but most rewarding, things I’ve done professionally. Man, can we figure stuff out on the fly.
20. Sometimes, teaching seems like an unbearable burden. Like now, when I’m behind 200 1-page reading responses.
21. Sometimes, teaching seems like an unbelievable gift. Like now, when I can sit with my colleagues, talking and reflecting and writing. Or when I’m reading something amazing that a student has written. Or when a class is marveling over how cool a poem, or essay, or video, or even just a word, is.
22. The English teacher voice in me tells me that the last sentence in #21 got away from me, and ended in a way it shouldn’t have. I’m doing my best to ignore that voice and leave the sentence the hell alone.
23. One of my students told me, back in 1990, about this amazing technology that would make teaching and learning really cool. You would be able to read words on a computer screen, and “click” on some of them, and things like pictures, or even videos, of the thing you clicked would show up. I scoffed. He went on to be the sixth person hired by Amazon.com, and is now retired and wealthy. And barely even in his mid-30s. Guess I should have listened.
24. I have a real love-hate relationship with teachers on tv shows and movies. Maybe it’s more of a train-wreck relationship. I can’t seem to look away, but I hate what I see.
25. The thing about teaching that keeps me doing it is the fact that I have to keep learning in order to do it well. That’s a pretty cool job parameter, I think.
I’m going to just hit “Post” without going back and even looking to see if it needs editing. So there.
February 23 2009 09:55 pm | Teaching and Work
Peter,
That is a fantastic list. I see myself in there a lot, and it’s good to know I;m not the only one that has demons of doubt sharpening their claws on the inside of my skull. As always, reading your writing (even unedited) makes me a smarter guy.
Okay, so I’m going to do this list on facebook… #10 and #11 are right the frick on. They make K-12 teachers learn so much about the actual craft of teaching, and yet the preparation to become a professors is so much more centered around the content studied.
But really… isn’t a professor’s job to teach? I never understood what was so fundamentally different about a professor and a high school teacher… I mean, besides the tweed jacket, arrogance, and twice the salary.
-D.
I’m with you, Peter. I’ve been thinking the same thing – to post my list on my teacher blog. Once I get past the saga of the classroom thieves, that is…
Donnie, how I wish the last statement was true. My wife teaches a 1st/2nd grade combo class in Oroville, and her base salary is a smidge higher than mine. I’d love to make double that!
It is so interesting to hear your opinion of teaching at KHS from an adult perspective. You have absolutely no reason to doubt your abilities as an educator. I would say that you were one of the better ones I had; right on par with Carl Wingate and Beth Niemi. I remember you doing Hans and Frans, and I would have never known that you had no directing experience during Bonechiller! You and Mr. Hess seemed like you knew exactly what you were doing. I enjoyed your irreverent sense of humor, and learned a lot during your journalism class. Remember when we ran that column on what students thought about flag burning and someone actually got beat up for his opinion after the article ran? Of course, that was during Desert Storm….
When I heard that you had moved on to teach at the college level, I thought you would probably be happier with the student population. There is so much more freedom of thought, and expectation of decent behavior. Sounds like you really enjoy your work, and I’m really happy for you.
By the way, who told you about PowerPoint? I’m curious, as I’m in touch with many people from the class ahead of me, and I knew nothing about that.