Sophomore year of high school was, emotionally, one of the hardest years of my life. As a result, (academically speaking) I did not do so great. But that happened to be the year I was taking chemistry taught by our kooky science department head (who has unfortunately since left my high school). Before I go any further, I would like to add a disclaimer that this article is not attacking him or his teaching methods. My older brother was taking his International Baccalaureate (IB) and AP chemistry class the same time I was in honors chemistry and despite his tutoring efforts, going in to receive help during lunch and asking peers for assistance, I did not understand chemistry.
But that’s not to say I didn’t learn anything from this character of a teacher, so without further ado…
1.If you need tissues in a pinch, be resourceful and grab toilet paper.
This sound really weird. And my class was definitely weirded out when an unsuspecting classmate asked for a tissue and was greeted with a full roll of toilet paper. But as the year went on, the ease of being able to grab toilet paper and give it to students having breakdowns became a small gesture of kindness and something to do when someone is upset that I still make an effort to do to this day.
2. Allowing me the opportunity to make more puns.
Mole day (Avogadro’s number in calendar date format) we had a party (which happened to be my birthday!) and were expected to make posters full of mole puns. Additionally, my teacher had a white board wall full of chemistry and science jokes students could write for other classmates. It was such a positive addition to the class and also fostered my ability to find puns and jokes in activities and work.
3. To value the importance of the sciences.
Being head of the science department and needing to approve my science course for junior year meant my teacher saw I was not planning on continuing taking any science courses – and talked me out of it. His statement was that colleges wouldn’t be impressed with a student who didn’t seem well-rounded, which ended up helping me tremendously at the small liberal arts university I attend now that encourages students who are well versed in many subject fields.
Which leads me to…
4. Plants are amazing!
If you know me, you know I am obsessed with plants and have a warm place in my heart for gushing over them. My junior year of high school is when this passion began when I took my school’s horticulture class and though he didn’t teach the course, had my chemistry teacher not expressed to me the importance of sciences, I would have never taken horticulture and my personhood would have been drastically different. Taking horticulture helped me immensely for the botany courses I have and will be taking at OWU, meaning my windowsills would be plant-less, which is a travesty to even consider.
5. Stay witty, even when the rest of the people around you have no idea what’s happening.
While I couldn’t contribute in a meaningful way to explaining chemistry or offering up the answers to questions, I definitely contributed to my teacher’s witty comments with banter of my own. Despite not all of my classmates understanding what was happening and mistaking it for arguing, it still got me to interact within the class and stay engaged, even when I had no idea what the course was covering.
6. To get excited about people who raise chickens and ducks.
Growing up in a suburban area outside of D.C., I knew that there were farms in nearby districts and counties, but learning that someone who worked in my city had a farm and raised animals was mind blowing. It only added to my enthusiasm when I learned he would sell the eggs his chickens lay to the faculty of the school. It felt like such a cool and unique teacher-culture piece of my high school and I became incredibly invested in the well-being of his chickens and his eventual ducks. Even after leaving his chemistry class, I would ask him about how his livestock was doing.
7. To recognize that layout style of assignments is important and that consistency in that style is essential to college.
As taxing as it was, my chemistry teacher’s students were expected to write our warm-up notes, homework assignments and other assignments in a very specific layout that went from the exact placement of your name to the number of lines skipped between entries on the papers. Though at the time I whined about it, I realize now that it was crucial in teaching me how to organize the notes I take in my college classes (especially my education classes!).
8. “Questions in ink, answers in pencil.”
If my former classmates hadn’t figured out who I was talking about at this point, this was the indicator. My teacher, in addition to the strict layout of our worksheets, would have us very diligently write out our worksheets in this format. His reasoning behind it made perfect sense though: The answer may change, but the question always stays the same.”
9. Appreciating teachers for the people they are.
Despite my not-success in chemistry, I still enjoyed having class with this teacher and still learned from him. Struggling in a class doesn’t mean that the teacher can’t like you or enjoy your contributions. Especially now that I'm studying in school to be a teacher I see the importance of reciprocity: I want to have students respect me and my students will want me to respect them.
10. Make the time you spend in class valuable.
This is probably the most important thing I learned. Even though I didn’t retain anything substantial that I remember four years later, it doesn’t make the time I spent a waste.
