But you know what?
Some positive things do happen in my life.
And there are people who have a positive impact on my life.
I can't put it all on one post, but I'll start a mini-series of positive posts.
For today, it will be about the positive teachers I have had in my life!
Of course, people always mention about how teachers have a positive impact on their students. Some of them had a very positive impact on me.
I'll go over teachers from different levels of education
1) Elementary school teachers
I am an alumni of Lanakila Elementary School. Because we were so young at the time, we didn't fully appreciate what the teachers were doing for us. I had academic potential but I did say so many ridiculous things in class that irritated the teachers. Sure, there were students worse than me, but that's not a good excuse on my part. Some of the teachers were scary (especially the 4th grade teachers, LOL!) but many were positive people.
I still remember Ms Ching (1st grade), Ms Lai (2nd grade) and Ms Komatsu (3rd grade). Unfortunately, I have never seen them since elementary school, so they never got a chance to see me as an older person.
The 4th grade teachers (Ms Ikeoka and Ms Waiwaiole) were the scary ones who were extremely irritable. And us as kids were irritating with our immature and inappropriate jokes.
However, I did see those 2 teachers one time when I was in high school. My high school class was on a field trip to Kaala Farms and so were the Lanakila Elementary students at the same time. So yeah, they did get a chance to see me as a more mature person.
5th grade teachers were Mr Kato and Ms Kishimoto. They weren't as scary as the 4th grade teachers, but I did say so many ridiculous things in class to get laughs, which of course, they had to be the disciplinarian. I didn't see Mr Kato since elementary, but I heard he became a fire-fighter. I did see Ms Kishimoto two times as a substitute teacher back in 2005. But I only subbed at that campus again in 2009. That was it!
But yeah, those teachers probably have a trip just knowing karma happening when I became a substitute teacher! But even those who didn't grow up to become teachers end up becoming parents (and experiencing karma at home from their kids).
2) Middle School Teachers
Middle school, a major transition point for every kid. At this point, teachers can have a major impact.
Here are the most positive ones from my time at Kawananakoa Middle School!
Mister Nagahisa (middle school social studies) - This was my 6th grade social studies teacher. He was a very positive teacher with an appropriate sense of humor. We used to have class presentations about our culture as well as other topics. We had class discussions.
Of course, as a 6th grader, I would say ridiculous things and be sent to sit outside the class. But we talked about what happened, and everything was all good afterwards.
Mister Chung (middle school social studies) This was 7th grade social studies which focused on Hawaii's history. We also did quiz games on current events, with the weekly questions were lesson plans from KGMB. This was my chance to prove to the rest of the class (most of whom under-estimated me) that I had brains on this topic. I earned some respect through this.
Last school year, I went back to the same middle school (Kawananakoa) as a substitute teacher. Very few teachers left from when I was a student. But Mr Chung was still there. Still the same cool guy that he was.
Miss Inouye (middle school science) This was 8th grade earth science. It was challenging but not overwhelming, and we had some lab assignments and textbook work. Miss Inouye was a great teacher that treated everyone with respect. Students did have their fun, but there was no chaos in the class. It was one of my favorite classes at the school.
3) High School Teachers
High School is when we grow from kids to adults. We start to have much more appreciation for the positive teachers, even though we may not admit it to all our peers at the time.
Here are my favorite teachers from McKinley High School!
John Newkirk (high school English) The first class I entered in high school was 9th grade English taught by Mr. Newkirk. There was emphasis on literature, but unlike some literature classes I had, this class was FUN! We acted out plays! We read stories as a group. We had class discussion on the stories.
I learned new things like "irony" and "tragedy vs comedy". We read interesting stories like "Chocolate War" and "Lord of the Flies"
And most importantly, Mr Newkirk was a good person with an appropriate sense of humor. This is extremely important because while you don't want the class to be boring, you also don't want the class to be chaos where people left out. Nobody felt left out in Mr Newkirk's class.
I'm still in contact with him via facebook. Sometimes, we have differing opinions on social issues (well, especially one, but this is a positive blog post) but we are able to discuss those things in a civilized manner.
Miss Tamura (high school social studies) -- I had her in my senior year in high school. Back then, seniors usually had one semester of "Behavior Sciences" which goes over the basics of psychology and sociology. It was a study of how people behave and organized themselves. It went over social structures, social control and also social disorder. Topics included values, mores, family, justice, punishment, nature vs nurture and much more.
While I was already reading a lot about those topics in my spare time, this was the first time I had a concept of "sociology" as a field. It quickly became my favorite topic, and eventually my major during my undergraduate years at UH-Manoa.
I have heard some students complain about Ms Tamura being "too hard". It wasn't that hard if you did the assignments. Tamura had high standards, but was a fair grader.
I also enjoyed the atmosphere in the class. We had lots of class discussions and presentations. We had a very vocal group of students in our class, but no rivalries nor drama. It was one of my greatest classes I ever had and I thank Miss Tamura big time. I have lost track of her since graduation, but I hope she knows my appreciation.
Warren Chee (high school geometry)- this was the greatest math teacher I ever had. I took this class in the 11th grade. Before that, my math teachers were either sarcastic jerks, screaming maniacs, or folks who didn't put real effort in classroom management. Even worse, math wasn't my top topic. But this is supposed to be a positive blog post so I won't say more about the previous teachers.
But Mister Chee was the ultimate math teacher. He was able to explain complex equations and procedures in ways we can understand. He was the first math teacher I could really do that.
He also had mind games at the start of many classes. This was a great use of appropriate sense of humor. This kept the class from being neither boring nor chaotic.
We had a great group of students in that class who were vocal, funny but respectful. I will always treasure the memories of that class.
Mister Sekiguchi (high school Algebra II) I took this class my senior year in high school. It was harder than Mr Chee's class.
But it wasn't that much torture, because this was one of the funnest classes I ever had in high school. Mr Sekiguchi had a great sense of humor, even though some of the funny stuff he did wasn't G-rated! But he wasn't a bully at all!
Funny stuff aside, I liked it when he had us discuss our homework as a group. This helped us understand our mistakes and gave us opportunities to help each other.
The students in that class were my favorite classmates I ever had and Mr Sekiguchi was the perfect man to teach us.
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4) College professors
Colleges have a reputation of having professors who come in, lecture a large auditorium of students whose names they'll never know, and therefore not care.
But I usually sat in the front of the class, and I usually ask questions and make comments. I'm not that easy to forget.
Here are some professors that I remember in a good way
Peter Manicas (sociology) Sociology 100, the first class I took at UH. He would run around the class and speak loudly. He would rant and rave. Because of this, people would call him "Dr Maniacs" (notice that the "a" and "c" switched around).
He was opinionated but he didn't take himself too seriously and he didn't take a challenge to his opinions personally. After I was done in the class, I would see him around campus and we would joke to each other about the opposite opinions we would sometimes have.
Not only that, that guy could sing the school's alma mater. I remember hearing him sing at a graduation ceremony and I was impressed!
Rodney Morales (English lit professor) For a long time, I was disillusioned with literature classes because some of the the teachers taught it in an extremely boring way. But Rodney Morales made literature interesting.
I had him for "Short Story and Novel". We had many class discussions on the books whereas some of the other literature teachers focused too much on manini details of the story. We read interesting stories like "Blade Runner" and my favorite fiction story "The Tattooed Soldier" which was about a Guatemalan immigrant who escaped civil war in his homeland but ended up in Los Angeles just when the riots were about to happen.
I could also relate to Rodney Morales on a personal level, since we were both Latinos who grew up in Hawaii (yes people, we exist) and not just anywhere in Hawaii, but in Kalihi -- the land of the public housing projects. We grew up in different areas of Kalihi (and in a different era, he's older) but we could still talk about many things and compare notes!
Beverly Keever (journalism) Her class that I took was more of an intro course about journalism and society, rather than a "how to be a reporter" class. She had guest speakers and we did student presentations. She was open to many different viewpoints, even though she felt one question I asked a guest speaker (about public relations) was too blunt (LOL!). After I took her course, she saw some opinion articles that I wrote for Ka Leo, and thought it was good for students to speak up about stuff, even if our viewpoints don't always fall into line.
David Swift (sociology) I took 3 classes with this guy. He was great. Even though he was already considered "old", he was still sharp and in command.
My first class with him was "Sociology of Pop Culture". Now everyone was thinking the same thing when he walked in --- are we in the right class? Him,an expert on pop culture? Well, it wasn't just current pop culture but the history of pop culture, from back in the day before we the students were even a sperm and an egg!
I also had him in "Social Change" and "Technology and Society".
In his classes, there was some lectures (in which some students fell asleep) but the fun begins when we had class discussions. In some of the classes, we had the football players there and they would make some silly and funny comments.
My favorite memory was the class presentation in the "Sociology of Pop Culture" class. My presentation was on ............................... a famous magazine with a rabbit logo. One of the funniest presentations I ever did!
Katherine Irwin (sociology) This one specialized in issues related to drugs and crime. Yes, they are serious topics but it wasn't boring. We would watch videos and have class discussions.
The professor had an appropriate sense of humor! The class had a whole bunch of football players and sometimes an assistant coach would walk in to make sure they were in class. After the assistant coach left, the professor then said "isn't that guy disturbing the class" then all the football players said "yeah" and started laughing!
David Mayeda (American studies) this class was supposed to be about social movements, but it was almost like a class on sports. No, we weren't just talking about the latest games, but about how social issues and sports intersect. For example, there were discussions about how racial and gender stereotypes have affected sports athletes and vice versa. Also, about how the pressure on doing well in sports and academics can take a toll of some student-athletes.
This teacher was tolerant of opposing viewpoints and didn't take a challenge to his viewpoint personally. This was especially important since this class happened around the time the War on Terror was beginning and there was some serious political tension on campus. You didn't have to worry about tensions in his class.
Dr Ling (linguistics) In this class, we learned about the different languages, as well as the different sounds and syllables. We also learned about different accents as well as emphasized respect of those who speak in a different accents.
Rick Baldoz (sociology) the one memory of I have of this class was on the day the 9/11 attacks happened. He did mentioned about what happened for a few minutes. Then we went on with the planned lesson of the day. I thought this was the most appropriate way to handle this issue -- acknowledge what happen but also continue with what was already planned.
On a more lighter note, I enjoyed the many class discussion on the many issues on race relations, ranging from immigration to affirmative action. Even with a sensitive and emotional issue, everyone was civilized and respectful.
Charles Mueller (social psyschology) this guy totally reminds me of Tim Allen of "Home Improvement". Similar look, similar funny gestures. Different voice, but still............! Had an appropriate sense of humor and a respectful person.
I liked it when he keeps saying about people's thinking and behavior "it's not logical .......it's psychological". Love that quote!
Dr. Dana Davidson (family resource) This was from my last semester as an undergraduate student. I just needed another upper-level course from outside my major. Davidson was teaching the class on adolesncent development. We leared about that as well as community outreach programs serving adolescents.
Calvin Endo (sociology) - This guy looked like Ben Cayetano, just with a lighter skin. Even the professors joked to him about signing the pay raise into law when the professors were on strike back in 2001.
But on a more serious note, he was my mentor in several ways. For one, he was the undergraduate academic advisor for the sociology department. He was the guy to talk to when you want to declare sociology as your major.
Also, he was in charge of the sociology Freshman Seminar programs in which senior students teach the Sociology 100 (intro to sociology) to a small group of freshmen. That was my first time teaching, before I became a substitute teacher.
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Now, I'm a graduate student in the Library and Information Science (LIS) program. Still too early to complete a list of great professors.
My academic advisor is Rebecca Knuth who is also teaching a class I'm taking this semester. A very wonderful, caring and humble person.
For the classes I have already completed, my personal favorite is Rich Gazan who teaches the database class. I mentioned him in another blog post
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2013/08/uhm-summer-session.html
.........but the good news was the professor, Rich Gazan, is one of the coolest guys around. He is an easy person to get along with and he is very helpful.
Professor Gazan also has tons of knowledge from his previous work experience in online indexing as well as his academic research.
Again, I had other profs and will be taking more classes in the near future. I'd rather wait until I'm done with the program before I make another list of positive professors for the LIS program.
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4) Conclusions and disclaimers
Before anyone gets offended about being left-off the list, please don't be. There are other teachers that did great things, but the ones listed had the most positive impact.
But thanks to all the great teachers who cared and helped me reach my potential. Keep doing what you're doing!
