Way back in elementary school my language arts teacher who was very liberated , Ms.Lois Harvey let me and my BBF pal around together and be her teacher pets. We did the usual CHALKBOARD cleaning, bullentin boards and even Scholastic and Dell Book club distrubutions. In hindsight I think she followed the Maxine Green theory of teaching.It was always fun in her classroom. And today as a sub I take that same approach because it mades it easier for me and allows me to keep my job. When I started subbing though I took the strict teaching method but we all know that doesdn't work with subs. The kids bleep all over you and I would have ended a short job stint and be unemployed. I wanted to keep working that was important so I used a relaxed frendly approach to subbing. right after the first week way back in 1998.
The second important person was a sub teacher who replaced the old man teacher who was boring and made science hell because the boys would just get him to tell war stories. His name was Alphonso Ruggiero and he made me like science and we becane his teachers pet to but to the consternation of the adminstration because we violated their precious teachers area to use the ditto machine (the old roll the handle type) back then. So ended that but it didn't hamper my love for science. He later became the tv writer of "Seven Days" tv series, and looks back on those days as the worst two years of his lfe. It's to bad we doesn'tknow what he did for me. From then on science kept be going through all the bad times of my life and right on to a BA in biology and still is doing that old black magic to me today.
In high school there was a kind biology teacher named Maryjo Aiken who let me bring in wild clover to the bunnies in the lab. She knew I was a outcast from the rest and let me do my thing for the animals. She had come great science electives. One was Project class where we designed and carried our own reseasrch project. I chose a simple one where I compared fertilizing with just water for plant growth. It was great. Then there was another one called Disease, and we took samples from all over the school, and I went to ther restroom and actually but accdentally grew E. Coli, they had to quickly auotclave it before it got out. That was fun. In another science class (with a different teacher) and with all seniors because I was trying not to take chemistry or physics; we had a project top write a scifi story based on science theory and I wrote about a mermen socitey (we are born from the water theory) perspective. I got a B+ ans was disspointed because I was helping all the seniors out who ended with As. But again science still reigned supreme with me. The in college there are three professors who taught from their own authured textbooks . Here the work was tough. Bs and Cs mostly and one D but I kept with it. Those professors were: Dr. William Scheafler who taught Biometrics, Dr. Fred Price who taught Molecular Biology, and Dr. James Spotilla who is responsible for deveopling the theory that dinosaurs are indeed warm blooded who taught Cold Blooded Invertbrates.
Now when I sub I still oeew teachers alot. At BSH there are a few teachers who always request me each year and I look forward to those assignments and they include:
Paul Champagne who teaches world music, drumming, and is the school band leader.
Lynne H. Champagne who teaches music, choir, keyboards, and rap.
Larry Wilson who teaches Language Arts and heads up the yearbook staff.
Kimberly Cook who is one of the many Physical Ed teachers and coaches there.
Rick Wilson who teaches Physical Science.
Stanley Schuster who besides teaches Geography, Amercian History and Economics, hails from my hometown as well.Without them I probbaly wouldn't work as half as long as I do a year. So many thanks go out to them too.
So you see how science and education have been my foundation for along time.
The next people I hope to have innfluence on me are you,workbbook editors and literary agents out there who happen to find this blog entry and do something about it.
Have a nice night!
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