What’s the rush anyway? Bask in it a bit, why dontcha? You’re always in such a goddamn hurry; and for what!? Work keeps you from growing moss on that pale ass of yours!”
While Jim Colabza did prefer to stay busy during the work day, there was an ulterior motive in picking up the additional class at the high school; and that reason was his pal, Tyler. He was slipping lately. Not exactly from hero to zero, but enough to raise a couple of eyebrows... namely his teacher’s.
Jim Colabza recalled the student who used to participate in class, and ace his tests and quizzes back in seventh grade, which was the first year he had Tyler as a student. Teachers remember the bad students, sure; like Richie Valdoosi, the fourteen year old little “prick” (as Jim Colabza remembers him), who thought he intimidated adults the same way he intimidated sixth graders. The fourteen year old little prick who had told Jim Colabza not to go fuck his mother , but his grandmother , because he looked like the type of man who liked to service “the older cunts.” Had Richie Valdoosi known that his history teacher was, in fact, gay, perhaps his insults would have gone in a different direction, and most likely much more vicious. Mind you, this was an exceptionally bad student who ended up being expelled not long after this incident for supplementary infractions.
On the other hand, teachers also remember the exemplary students; and he had a bunch over the course of his long and illustrious career, but none with as much bright potential as Tyler Swanson.
The way Mr. Colabza ran his class was simple: when a unit was taught, notes and key terms were written on the board and explained. The students were expected to take down the notes the way they were issued in class at the very minimum. If the students wanted to expand upon them, that was not only their prerogative, but even encouraged…and surprisingly, many did. Experienced teachers often looked down on simply listing notes on a blackboard, or handing out the dishonorable “dittos,” calling these methods lazy and uncreative; but they didn’t call Jim Colabza’s methods, which consisted primarily of notes and barely any “dittos” lazy. Truth be told, Jim didn’t stick with these methods for so long because he was lazy or complacent. He stuck with them because they worked . He lived life under the slogan: Stray from the formula and you pay the price…a conservative view for a man who was anything but as he grew up, man .
While Jim’s methods would not win any awards in creativity or blow an education professor’s skirt up if they came to observe him, it was effective because it wasn’t just the notes. He made the material relatable and fun and broke up the desiccated monotony of his lectures and notes with his infectious brand of humor, anecdotes and insight. He treated every class he taught as a performance, which in a way, it was. His goal, which is the common goal of any performer of any craft, was to win over his “audience.” If they don’t appreciate the craft prior to the performance, they damn-well will afterwards.
The day before a unit exam, students broke into five groups of four students for a game of Jeopardy, the questions of which obviously pertained to the unit exam. The winning team would earn five extra points tacked onto their unit exam score. The only catch was that Mr. Colabza picked the teams so that they were balanced. Brains, just like popularity, tended to stick together.
On test day, students were allowed to use their notes on the unit exam, although they could only use what they could fit on both sides of an index card. Mr. Colabza would walk around the room during the test and make check marks on the student’s pages of notes that they took in class that week (or more), for what purpose, the students didn’t really know, although they suspected it was just to see how they utilized their forty minutes in his classroom each
While Jim Colabza did prefer to stay busy during the work day, there was an ulterior motive in picking up the additional class at the high school; and that reason was his pal, Tyler. He was slipping lately. Not exactly from hero to zero, but enough to raise a couple of eyebrows... namely his teacher’s.
Jim Colabza recalled the student who used to participate in class, and ace his tests and quizzes back in seventh grade, which was the first year he had Tyler as a student. Teachers remember the bad students, sure; like Richie Valdoosi, the fourteen year old little “prick” (as Jim Colabza remembers him), who thought he intimidated adults the same way he intimidated sixth graders. The fourteen year old little prick who had told Jim Colabza not to go fuck his mother , but his grandmother , because he looked like the type of man who liked to service “the older cunts.” Had Richie Valdoosi known that his history teacher was, in fact, gay, perhaps his insults would have gone in a different direction, and most likely much more vicious. Mind you, this was an exceptionally bad student who ended up being expelled not long after this incident for supplementary infractions.
On the other hand, teachers also remember the exemplary students; and he had a bunch over the course of his long and illustrious career, but none with as much bright potential as Tyler Swanson.
The way Mr. Colabza ran his class was simple: when a unit was taught, notes and key terms were written on the board and explained. The students were expected to take down the notes the way they were issued in class at the very minimum. If the students wanted to expand upon them, that was not only their prerogative, but even encouraged…and surprisingly, many did. Experienced teachers often looked down on simply listing notes on a blackboard, or handing out the dishonorable “dittos,” calling these methods lazy and uncreative; but they didn’t call Jim Colabza’s methods, which consisted primarily of notes and barely any “dittos” lazy. Truth be told, Jim didn’t stick with these methods for so long because he was lazy or complacent. He stuck with them because they worked . He lived life under the slogan: Stray from the formula and you pay the price…a conservative view for a man who was anything but as he grew up, man .
While Jim’s methods would not win any awards in creativity or blow an education professor’s skirt up if they came to observe him, it was effective because it wasn’t just the notes. He made the material relatable and fun and broke up the desiccated monotony of his lectures and notes with his infectious brand of humor, anecdotes and insight. He treated every class he taught as a performance, which in a way, it was. His goal, which is the common goal of any performer of any craft, was to win over his “audience.” If they don’t appreciate the craft prior to the performance, they damn-well will afterwards.
The day before a unit exam, students broke into five groups of four students for a game of Jeopardy, the questions of which obviously pertained to the unit exam. The winning team would earn five extra points tacked onto their unit exam score. The only catch was that Mr. Colabza picked the teams so that they were balanced. Brains, just like popularity, tended to stick together.
On test day, students were allowed to use their notes on the unit exam, although they could only use what they could fit on both sides of an index card. Mr. Colabza would walk around the room during the test and make check marks on the student’s pages of notes that they took in class that week (or more), for what purpose, the students didn’t really know, although they suspected it was just to see how they utilized their forty minutes in his classroom each
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