My Teaching Gig

I prepared a "rainy day" presentation (an activity for two or more classes which can used on short notice in case one or more English teachers call in sick and no substitute can be found.)

The idea is this: first show them an excerpt from the Vin Diesel action comedy "The Pacifier" (Walt Disney, 2005) and then another clip from "The Sound of Music" (20th Century Fox, 1965), and finally discuss the connection between them.

Huh? Connection?


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The Pacifier is a US Navy SEAL officer sent to care for and protect the children of widow Julie Plummer (Get it? Julie Andrews + Christopher Plummer). This is a twist of the Sound of Music, where the nun Maria is sent to be the governess for the children of Captain (Navy, get it?) von Trapp. The tough commando and the kids don't hit it off, but he ends up falling for them and they pick up combat tactics (As opposed to Maria teaching the von Trapp kids to sing.)


Now you have to understand; I got this teaching gig totally by accident.

Six summers ago I was a farmer and gardener between jobs, and our high school needed an English speaker to fill in for a real teacher on Sabbatical. I didn't have a clue what I was going to do with my students when I walked into a classroom that first day of school; and when the year was over and they had actually made progress, I hadn't the foggiest how I had done it.

I wasn't a very good teacher. The kids gave me hell and I don't think I've ever given a proper lesson. I hated grades, which for me are meaningless numbers, and discipline because I'm not a disciplined person. I was so bad at teaching that I up and quit in the middle of my second year.

But something had happened. The kids had gotten under my skin. So I came back as a volunteer. At first I was with the English staff, tutoring and helping out. Then I caught up with "my kids", who were in 11th grade by now, and joined their homeroom staff. I went with them on their field trips and sleepovers and chaperoned their parties.

Then last year a very special girl, Neta, was all mine. She was just a hair away from expulsion when I asked to take her under my wing. I don't know how it came to me, but I decided that Shakespeare is just the thing for a student that is failing almost everything and is weak in English. And she made it, if just barely.

This year, last year's 12th grade homeroom staff started a 4 year journey with the freshmen, the 9th graders I blog about. I asked to again teach, with a real class with real grades, for just one year. I wanted to get to know the kids and the kids to get to know me. And by now I knew what would happen. I fell in love with them.

For the next 3 years I will travel with them until they graduate and go to the army and out into life. Yesterday they got their report cards and started their summer vacation. I can't wait to see them again next September.











I think what stays with everyone that has seen The Pacifier and The Sound of Music is how Maria teaches the von Trapp's music and how Lt. Wolfe (Vin Diesel) trains the Plummer kids in hand to hand combat, and how the kids change and blossom. But how many remember that no less remarkable is how the children changed Maria and the tough Navy SEAL? But I noticed. Because that's what happened to me.

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I'm not a very good teacher. I'm not even a real teacher. I don't know what my student learned from me, or if they learned anything, and if they did, how I did it. I don't know how many of "my kids" will remember me. Well, I suppose Neta will.

But I know this; I will remember them all.