Things You Didn’t Know About Your Teachers

Pamela James:

Who were your childhood heroes?
“My childhood heroes were the Bionic Woman and Wonder Woman because they had great powers but also a lot of intelligence and compassion. They didn’t let anyone push them around.”

What is your teaching motto?
“Never let them see you teach. People often think of ‘teaching’ as a teacher talking to a group of students from the front of the class. I like to do that as little as possible. Students should be actively involved doing something.”

What is the worst excuse you’ve ever gotten from a student?
“I liked when a student told me there were no computers in Washington D.C., that was a good one.”

What is the most awkward moment you’ve had while teaching?
“I yelled at my fifth hour the other day because they were all tardy, but really the bell wasn’t supposed to ring for another five minutes.”

What is your favorite in-class snack?
“Airheads.”

Rick Royer:

What is your teaching motto?
“Content is secondary; my job is to teach young people period, not to teach them specifically the content.”

What’s your favorite color?
“I suppose I would say blue which is kind of a standard answer. I like orange a lot too, but blue is the favorite.”

What is the worst excuse you’ve ever gotten from a student?
“I’m such a sucker for students. I’d probably believe anything they tell me. It doesn’t matter how lousy the excuse is that they give me, it seems pretty legitimate to me because I believe everything.”

What is the most awkward moment you’ve had while teaching?
“I have a bad habit of reading shirts aloud and I had a young lady walk into my class one day with a shirt on that simply had an arrow pointing upward that said ‘I’m up here.’ The implication was kind of obvious, but I had read it out loud before I realized what it said.”

Lisa Leslie:

What is your teaching motto?
“It’s all about the teaching, not the grades.”

What is the most awkward moment you’ve had while teaching?
“As a first year teacher my students took the hinges off the classroom door and shut it so that when I opened it, the door fell. I thought I broke it!”

What is your favorite in-class snack?
“Chocolate donuts.”

How would you describe your ideal student?
“Awake.”

What is the worst fashion trend you’ve seen on students?
“Nothing is bad, I just don’t like so many piercings, they make me hurt.”

What were you like as a kid in school?
“I was a band geek – band saved my life.”

Spring Gehring-Lowery:

Who were your favorite superheroes growing up and why?
“I really loved Wonder Woman because she flew an invisible plane and had a magic lasso. Feminist superhero, magic lasso, invisible plane – nothing is cooler than that.”

What is your favorite thing to snack on in class?
“An apple or a granola bar.”

What is the worst fashion trend you’ve seen on students?
“UGG Boots–blegh.”

What is your favorite reality TV show?
“I don’t even want to admit this… but ‘Big Rich Texas.” It is terrible – the
worst mind trash that you can find on TV.”

What is your favorite note passing incident you’ve had?
“I found a note at my old school that said, ‘Hey, What’s poppin’? I see you’ve been talkin’ to my sister with the hairy lip. I don’t like that.’ This cracked me up.”